Abstract Although variations of atmospheric dust aerosols emitted from different sources within Asia have been studied separately in previous research, the characteristics and causes of these changes have not been fully explored. This study used the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) data set for 1980–2016 to compare seasonal and interannual variations of atmospheric dust aerosols between mid- and low-latitude sources of Asia and explore the reasons for these variations. The seasonal variation of atmospheric dust aerosols in mid-latitude sources was different from that of low-latitude sources. The column burden of dust aerosols in the mid-latitude sources (including East and Central Asia) reached their maximum in spring, and accounted for about 37% and 33% of their annual total load, respectively. The maximum dust aerosols in spring in the Central Asia sources resulted from multiple factors such as soil wetness, snow depth, and vertical wind shear, but they were negatively correlated with soil wetness on the interannual scale (r = −0.65). The maximum dust aerosol burden in spring in the East Asia sources resulted from vertical wind shear in the lower troposphere, and showed a positive correlation with the interannual change of dust aerosols in this source region (r = 0.51). However, the column burden of dust aerosols in the low-latitude sources (including South and West Asia) reached their maximum in summer, and accounted for about 41% and 37% of their annual total load, respectively. The maximum dust aerosols of summer in the low-latitude sources also resulted from vertical wind shear in the lower troposphere with correlation coefficients of 0.50 and 0.73 in the South and West Asia sources, respectively. The present results may help in further understanding the formation and change of Asian dust aerosols.

中文翻译：

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亚洲中低纬度地区大气尘埃气溶胶的季节和年际变化——比较研究

摘要 亚洲地区不同来源的大气沙尘气溶胶的变化虽然在以往的研究中已经分别进行了研究，但对这些变化的特征和成因还没有得到充分的探讨。本研究使用 1980 年至 2016 年的现代研究与应用回顾性分析第 2 版 (MERRA-2) 数据集来比较亚洲中低纬度地区大气尘埃气溶胶的季节和年际变化，并探讨原因对于这些变化。中纬度源大气沙尘气溶胶季节变化与低纬度源不同。中纬度地区（包括东亚和中亚）的沙尘气溶胶柱负荷在春季达到最大值，分别约占其年总负荷的37%和33%。中亚源春季最大沙尘气溶胶受土壤湿度、积雪深度和垂直风切变等多种因素影响，但在年际尺度上与土壤湿度呈负相关（r = -0.65）。东亚源春季最大沙尘气溶胶负荷是由对流层低层垂直风切变引起的，与该源区沙尘气溶胶年际变化呈正相关（r=0.51）。然而，低纬度源（包括南亚和西亚）的沙尘气溶胶柱负荷在夏季达到最大值，分别约占其年总负荷的41%和37%。低纬度源夏季最大沙尘气溶胶也是由对流层低层垂直风切变产生的，南亚和西亚源的相关系数分别为0.50和0.73。目前的结果可能有助于进一步了解亚洲沙尘气溶胶的形成和变化。