Aerosols from Asian duststorms occurred in spring are the major natural source of suspended particles in East Asia. These aerosols have great impact on the regional air quality and climate (through changing radiative balance). Taiwan, located at the southeast edge of Asian continent, can also be affected by the duststorm aerosols in winter and spring since the air flow in the above seasons favors transportation of these suspended particles to Taiwan area. Recent local high PSI events are shown to be related to the transportation of duststorm aerosols to Taiwan area. To integrate various research data and results, this project systematically collects long-term (1994~2003) data of meteorology, air quality, and satellite observations to establish a database of Asian duststorm. This database is expected to provide a useful reference for duststorm prediction or pure scientific research in the near future. Major achievements of this year include: i) establish a WWW database of 108 duststorm cases affecting Taiwan area, ii) characterize the strength of duststorm into 3 categories (degrees) and the degrees affecting air quality in Taiwan area (into 5 degrees).

Dust storm,atmospheric dust model,TAQM