Seasonal variability and spatial distribution of aerosol hotspots within the southern Aral Sea basin
(2026) NGEK11 20261Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo)
- Abstract
- The desiccation of the Aral Sea has exposed large areas of former lakebed surfaces. These surfaces have provided the area with major sources of both saline dust and aerosol emissions. Aerosol activity is categorized as highly unstable and dynamic and known to fluctuate greatly over short periods of time. A lot of previous aerosol studies within the area have relied on the commonly used long term composites which have the ability to obscure short term changes, or extreme events. This study investigated the spatial and temporal variability of aerosol hotspot activity within the southern Aral Sea basin using Sentinel 5P Absorbing Aerosol Index observations between 2018 and 2022, with a particular focus on the difference between the eastern... (More)
- The desiccation of the Aral Sea has exposed large areas of former lakebed surfaces. These surfaces have provided the area with major sources of both saline dust and aerosol emissions. Aerosol activity is categorized as highly unstable and dynamic and known to fluctuate greatly over short periods of time. A lot of previous aerosol studies within the area have relied on the commonly used long term composites which have the ability to obscure short term changes, or extreme events. This study investigated the spatial and temporal variability of aerosol hotspot activity within the southern Aral Sea basin using Sentinel 5P Absorbing Aerosol Index observations between 2018 and 2022, with a particular focus on the difference between the eastern and western basin. Daily aerosol observations were combined with hotspot recurrence analysis, spatial distribution analysis, hydrological surface classification and ERA5 wind composites to examine whether atmospheric and surface conditions play a role in controlling the aerosol emission locations. A five year time series was created and came up with a 0.98 correlation between basins but despite this, substantial seasonal contrasts in hotspot dominance were identified. Spring proved to have the most spatial variation while summer consistently remained in the eastern basin, and winter in the western basin. Persistent hotspot regions were identified to most commonly appear in intermittently exposed surfaces and stable surfaces within the basin. Wind composites showed that atmospheric direction contrasted between spring, summer and winter as well as all consistently showing that they were higher in magnitude than the long term mean. The results indicate that in specific events, the eastern and western basin can function differently with regard to aerosol source environments. This study also highlights the importance of using higher temporal data as to not obscure short term variabilities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9251341
- author
- Brown, Pera Verity LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- NGEK11 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Aral Sea, Sentinel-5P, aerosol emissions, hydrological exposure, Absorbing Aerosol Index
- language
- English
- id
- 9251341
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-17 15:10:18
- date last changed
- 2026-09-17 15:10:18
@misc{9251341,
abstract = {{The desiccation of the Aral Sea has exposed large areas of former lakebed surfaces. These surfaces have provided the area with major sources of both saline dust and aerosol emissions. Aerosol activity is categorized as highly unstable and dynamic and known to fluctuate greatly over short periods of time. A lot of previous aerosol studies within the area have relied on the commonly used long term composites which have the ability to obscure short term changes, or extreme events. This study investigated the spatial and temporal variability of aerosol hotspot activity within the southern Aral Sea basin using Sentinel 5P Absorbing Aerosol Index observations between 2018 and 2022, with a particular focus on the difference between the eastern and western basin. Daily aerosol observations were combined with hotspot recurrence analysis, spatial distribution analysis, hydrological surface classification and ERA5 wind composites to examine whether atmospheric and surface conditions play a role in controlling the aerosol emission locations. A five year time series was created and came up with a 0.98 correlation between basins but despite this, substantial seasonal contrasts in hotspot dominance were identified. Spring proved to have the most spatial variation while summer consistently remained in the eastern basin, and winter in the western basin. Persistent hotspot regions were identified to most commonly appear in intermittently exposed surfaces and stable surfaces within the basin. Wind composites showed that atmospheric direction contrasted between spring, summer and winter as well as all consistently showing that they were higher in magnitude than the long term mean. The results indicate that in specific events, the eastern and western basin can function differently with regard to aerosol source environments. This study also highlights the importance of using higher temporal data as to not obscure short term variabilities.}},
author = {{Brown, Pera Verity}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Seasonal variability and spatial distribution of aerosol hotspots within the southern Aral Sea basin}},
year = {{2026}},
}