Dust Under the Radar: Rethinking How to Evaluate the Impacts of Dust Events on Air Quality in the United States.

Autor: Ardon-Dryer K; Department of Geosciences Texas Tech University Lubbock TX USA., Clifford KR; Western Water Assessment & Department of Geography University of Colorado Boulder CO USA., Hand JL; Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: GeoHealth [Geohealth] 2023 Dec 08; Vol. 7 (12), pp. e2023GH000953. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Dec 08 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1029/2023GH000953
Abstrakt: Dust is an important and complex constituent of the atmospheric system, having significant impacts on the environment, climate, air quality, and human health. Although dust events are common across many regions of the United States, their impacts are not often prioritized in air quality mitigation strategies. We argue that there are at least three factors that result in underestimation of the social and environmental impact of dust events, making them receive less attention. These include (a) sparse monitoring stations with irregular spatial distribution in dust-influenced regions, (b) inconsistency with dust sampling methods, and (c) sampling frequency and schedules, which can lead to missed dust events or underestimation of dust particle concentrations. Without addressing these three factors, it is challenging to characterize and understand the full air quality impacts of dust events in the United States. This paper highlights the need for additional monitoring to measure these events so that we can more fully evaluate and understand their impacts, as they are predicted to increase with climate change.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this study.
(© 2023 The Authors. GeoHealth published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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