Dust storms fueled by wind erosion of desert and cropland soils in south-central Arizona have caused numerous highway accidents and health risks by creating hazardous air quality conditions. Despite much speculation that a major fraction of windblown dust during these storms originates at an active or abandoned cropland surface over the region, its quantification is largely missing in the literature. This study estimated the contribution of cropland wind erosion to the regional air quality degradation, in terms of concentration of particulate matter with diameter 10 μm and smaller (PM₁₀), during a typical springtime dust storm, by conducting high-resolution (1 km horizontally) simulations utilizing the Weather Research and Forecasting-FENGSHA (a dust emission model)-Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-FENGSHA-CMAQ) modeling framework. The dust model for this study employed up-to-date and very high-resolution data on land use, soil texture, and vegetation index. The modeling system used in this study simulated reasonably well a regional dust storm (that raised concerns for air quality and highway safety) of 08–09 April 2013 compared against ground (station) observations of PM₁₀ and satellite observations of dust optical depth and vertical structure of aerosol subtypes. The model evaluations also included the use of radar observations.

Furthermore, the model results from this study revealed that the cropland wind erosion was responsible for 55% and 51% of total PM₁₀ over Phoenix (33.35°N–33.85°N, 112.36°W–111.485°W) and western Pinal County (32.50°N–33.35°N, 112.2°W–111.2°W), respectively, during the simulated dust storm. The large contributions suggest that the inclusion and accurate representation of cropland dust sources are crucial in preparing emission inventories and in air quality modeling for the region. Such representation is particularly important in view of the projected future aridity over this region (that is already under a long-term drought), which may lead to fallowing of currently active farmlands, making them potential hotspots of dust emission. The modeling approach developed for this work can be used to carry out more comprehensive studies, over extended spatial and temporal extents, to identify the sources of windblown dust and quantify their climatological dust emission potentials for this region or elsewhere. Such studies are highly desirable to help decision-making processes to reduce windblown dust and the associated health and safety risks.

由亚利桑那州中南部沙漠和农田土壤的风蚀助长的沙尘暴造成了危险的空气质量条件，造成了许多公路事故和健康风险。尽管很多人猜测这些风暴期间风吹沙尘的主要部分起源于该地区活跃或废弃的农田表面，但文献中基本上没有对其进行量化。本研究以直径 10 μm 及更小颗粒物（PM ₁₀)，在典型的春季沙尘暴期间，利用天气研究和预报-FENGSHA（沙尘排放模型）-社区多尺度空气质量 (WRF-FENGSHA-CMAQ) 建模框架进行高分辨率（水平 1 公里）模拟。本研究的尘埃模型采用了有关土地利用、土壤质地和植被指数的最新和高分辨率数据。本研究中使用的建模系统模拟了 2013 年 4 月 8 日至 9 日的区域沙尘暴（引起了对空气质量和公路安全的担忧）与 PM _{10 的}地面（站）观测和沙尘光学深度和垂直方向的卫星观测进行了比较。气溶胶亚型的结构。模型评估还包括使用雷达观测。

此外，该研究的模型结果显示，农田风蚀占 PM ₁₀总量的 55% 和 51%在模拟的沙尘暴期间，凤凰城（33.35°N–33.85°N，112.36°W–111.485°W）和皮纳尔县西部（32.50°N–33.35°N，112.2°W–111.2°W）分别上空。大量贡献表明，包含和准确表示农田沙尘源对于编制该地区的排放清单和空气质量建模至关重要。考虑到该地区预计未来的干旱（已经处于长期干旱状态），这种代表性尤其重要，这可能导致目前活跃的农田休耕，使其成为潜在的粉尘排放热点。为这项工作开发的建模方法可用于在扩展的空间和时间范围内进行更全面的研究，确定风尘的来源并量化该地区或其他地方的气候粉尘排放潜力。此类研究非常适合帮助决策过程减少风尘和相关的健康和安全风险。