Merged dust climatology in Phoenix, Arizona based on satellite and station data.

In order to construct climate quality long-term dust storm dataset, merged dust storm climatology in Phoenix is developed based on three data sources: regular meteorological records, in situ air quality measurements, and satellite remote sensing observations. The result presented in this paper takes into account the advantages of each dataset and integrates individual analyses demonstrated and presented in previous studies that laid foundation to reconstruct a consistent and continuous time series of dust frequency. A key for the merging procedure is to determine analysis criteria suitable for each individual data source. A practical application to historic records of dust storm activities over the Phoenix area is presented to illustrate detailed steps, advantages, and limitations of the newly developed process. Three datasets are meteorological records from the Sky Harbor station, satellite observed aerosol optical depth data from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality System particulate matter data of eight sites surrounding Phoenix. Our purpose is to construct dust climatology over the Phoenix region for the period 1948-2012. Data qualities of the reconstructed dust climatology are assessed based on the availability and quality of the input data. The period during 2000-2012 has the best quality since all datasets are well archived. The reconstructed climatology shows that dust storm activities over the Phoenix region have large interannual variability. However, seasonal variations show a skewed distribution with higher frequency of dust storm activities in July and August and relatively quiet during the rest of months. Combining advantages of all the available datasets, this study presents a merged product that provides a consistent and continuous time series of dust storm activities suitable for climate studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]