Dust emission and environmental changes in the dried bottom of the Aral Sea

• We studied the dust storms originated from the dried bottom of the Aral Sea by AVHRR, TOMS and OMI.
• The dried bottom of the Aral Sea became very active dust source in the last three decades.
• Both the “older” and the “newer” dried bottom of the sea are powerful sources of mineral aerosols.
• The northeastern and eastern parts of the dried bottom are the main sources of dust.
• The main direction of dust plumes was towards the west and south-west.

In the 1990s, the western world became aware of the ecological disaster of what was once the fourth largest lake in the world – the Aral Sea. The drastic desiccation of the Aral Sea led to the intensive development of desertification processes in the region and the formation of a new desert, the Aralkum. In the last few decades, the Aralkum has become the new “hot spot” of dust and salt storms in the region. Dust storms and their source areas have been determined and analyzed by the NOAA AVHRR, TOMS and OMI data. An analysis of the land-cover changes in the dried bottom of the Aral Sea revealed that the north-eastern part of the Aralkum Desert is one of the most active dust sources in the region, responsible for high aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere. Dust plumes that sweep up from the dried bottom of the Aral Sea have become larger, and dust storms have become more powerful, since the bottom exposure. The main change that occurred in the land cover was the considerable reduction of vegetation and small water bodies, while the areas of solonchaks (salty pans) and sandy massifs increased significantly.