An increase in dust emission events and its connection to desertification in East Asia

Abstract

Dust emission is a phenomenon that soil particles are blown up by a strong wind, and it depends on the relationship between erosivity (i.e., ability of wind to cause erosion) and erodibility (susceptibility of soil and land surface to wind erosion) conditions. This study will show dust emission frequencies, strong wind frequencies, and 5-percentiles of threshold wind speed, which is a wind speed initiating a dust emission, on April for two decades (1990s and 2000s) in East Asia, and we will discuss causes in increases of dust emission will be discussed from the aspects of erosivity and erodibility.