A model for mineral dust emission

Abstract

In the new dust emission model presented in this paper, the two major dust emission mechanisms are considered, namely, saltation bombardment and aggregates disintegration. The emission of dust generated by the first mechanism is modeled from the perspective of volume removal caused by saltating particles and that arising from the second mechanism is related to the streamwise saltation flux. The dust emission rate is constrained by using the information of minimally and fully dispersed particle size distributions. The performance of the dust emission model is compared with the available field measurements. Despite large uncertainties both in measurements and model parameters, the comparison shows that the model is promising. The accuracy of the model depends on the availability of high‐quality particle size data. It is proposed to establish a detailed database of particle size distributions for various soil types for the purpose of modeling dust emission over large areas.