East Asian dust aerosols play a vital role in the local and regional climate through its direct, indirect, and semidirect effects, but the dominant factors affecting the interannual variation of dust aerosols over East Asia and their regional differences remain unclear. This study verified the accuracy of MEERA-2 dust data in East Asia, analyzed the interannual trends of dust in East Asia from 2000 to 2019 using the MERRA-2 dust column mass density (DCMD) and identified the dominant factors affecting the interannual variation during the dusty season (March–July) by developing the regional multiple linear regression models, combined with correlation and partial correlation analysis. The comparison with the dust index (DI) calculated from ground-based observations of dust events frequency indicated that MERRA-2 DCMD exhibited high spatial agreement (R > 0.8) with ground-based observations in most regions (especially in the dust source region of North China). The trend analysis revealed that DCMD in East Asia decreased significantly after 2000, particularly in the dusty season (March–July). These significant decreases were generally highly correlated with increases in normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI), volumetric soil moisture (VSM), and precipitation (PPT) and with decreases in wind speed (WS). Furthermore, WS dominated the interannual variation in the dust concentration over the East Asian dust source regions and their downstream. By contrast, PPT, through its wet deposition effect, dominated the variation in the rest of the regions away from the dust source region. The study findings may help clarify the associations between local meteorological and surface factors and long-term variations in dust aerosols over East Asia.

东亚粉尘气溶胶通过其直接，间接和半直接效应在当地和区域气候中起着至关重要的作用，但影响东亚粉尘气溶胶年际变化的主要因素及其区域差异仍不清楚。这项研究验证了MEERA-2尘埃数据在东亚的准确性，使用MERRA-2尘埃柱密度（DCMD）分析了2000年至2019年东亚尘埃的年际趋势，并确定了影响该时段年际变化的主要因素通过开发区域多元线性回归模型，并结合相关性和偏相关性分析，在尘土飞扬的季节（3月至7月）。与根据地面对尘埃事件频率的观测所计算出的尘埃指数（DI）的比较表明，MERRA-2 DCMD在大多数区域（尤其是在沙尘源地区）与地面观测值表现出很高的空间一致性（R> 0.8）。华北）。趋势分析显示，2000年后，东亚地区的DCMD显着下降，尤其是在沙尘季节（3月至7月）。这些显着下降通常与归一化植被指数（NDVI），土壤体积水分（VSM）和降水（PPT）的增加以及风速（WS）的减少高度相关。此外，WS主导了东亚尘埃源地区及其下游尘埃浓度的年际变化。相比之下，PPT通过其湿式沉积效应，在除尘源区域以外的其余区域中，变化起主导作用。研究结果可能有助于弄清东亚各地的气象因素和地表因素与粉尘气溶胶的长期变化之间的关系。