Comparison of simulating mineral dust aerosols in east asia by two emission schemes

Two common surface-dust emission schemes using critical wind speed and friction velocity were compared with the regional climate model RegCM3 in East Asia. In the comparison, transport of mineral dust and its distribution were simulated from March to April, 2001. Simulation results were also compared with TOMS aerosol index, showing that obvious differences exist in dust emission quantity and its column burden simulated by the dust emission schemes of friction velocity and wind speed criteria. The results obtained by the wind speed criterion are higher than that by friction velocity, bringing forth the problem whether or not the dust emission scheme matches the model. The obvious difference in the two schemes also explains the uncertainty of simulating mineral dust aerosol by modeling.