Anthropogenic sulfate-climate interactions suppress dust activity over East Asia

Xie, Xiaoning; Myhre, Gunnar; Che, Huizheng; Wu, Feng; Guo, Jianing; Shi, Zhengguo; Li, Xinzhou; Liu, Xiaodong; Liu, Yangang

doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02147-x

Title: Anthropogenic sulfate-climate interactions suppress dust activity over East Asia

Journal Article · 26 February 2025 · Communications Earth & Environment

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02147-x · OSTI ID:2543029

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Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Xi'an (China)
Center for International Climate Research (CICERO), Oslo (Norway)
Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing (China)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Xi'an (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Observational evidences indicate a significant decline in dust storm frequencies over the East Asian arid-semiarid region during recent decades, which creates a strong contrast with a great increase in sulfate emissions over monsoonal Asia. However, the causes for decline of dust activities are still controversial. Through conducting a set of idealized sensitivity experiments of regional aerosol perturbations, here we show that anthropogenic sulfate aerosols over monsoonal Asia remarkably suppress the regional dust activities over East Asia. Southward shift of Asian westerly jet stream induced by sulfate aerosols results in increasing precipitation and weakening surface wind speeds over the arid-semiarid region, thereby suppressing local dust emission fluxes. Further, the latest Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project simulations indicate that anthropogenic aerosols partly drive the recent weakening in regional dust activities and that future change of regional dust activities will likely depend on emissions scenarios of Asian anthropogenic aerosols and greenhouse gases.

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2543029

Report Number(s):: BNL--227929-2025-JAAM

Journal Information:: Communications Earth & Environment, Journal Name: Communications Earth & Environment Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 6; ISSN 2662-4435

Publisher:: Springer NatureCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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