When the Aral Sea Dried Up, Central Asia Became Dustier

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https://eos.org/research-spotlights/when-the-aral-sea-dried-up-central-asia-became-dustier

By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: In 1959, officials in the Soviet Union decided to divert river flows feeding the Aral Sea to the deserts of Central Asia, where the water irrigated farms supplying a growing cotton industry. As the cotton blossomed, the lake’s level dropped. Today, only slivers remain of what was once the world’s fourth largest lake. As the Aral Sea has become a desert, known as the Aralkum, soil from the dry lake bed has added to the dust that swirls above Central Asia. This dust carries hazards beyond those typically associated with natural particulate matter: It’s mixed with salt as well as residues from agricultural pesticides and fertilizers introduced into the sea. How much and where dust from the former Aral Sea spreads across the surrounding region are therefore important public health questions. In a new study, Banks et al. used an atmospheric transport model known as COSMO-MUSCAT (Consortium for Small-scale Modelling-Multiscale Chemistry Aerosol Transport) to quantify how much dust the dry lake bed contributes to the region, where the dust is most prevalent, and how much of the dust can be measured by satellites. The modeling revealed that the dry lake bed of the former Aral Sea added about 7% more dust over Central Asia in the 2000s to 2010s compared with the 1980s and 1990s. Dust emissions from the Aralkum appear to peak twice per year, in spring and early winter.... 

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