Central Asia is characterized by an arid climate and widespread desert distribution, with its sustainable development severely constrained by dust events. An objective understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns and driving forces of dust weather is highly important in this area. Based on the meteorological observations from 2000 to 2020, we examined the spatiotemporal characteristics of dust weather in the five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) via Theil-Sen trend analysis and Geodetector modeling method, quantitatively revealing the influence of environmental factors, such as temperature, precipitation, and vegetation, on the frequency of dust weather. The results showed that: (1) dust weather in Central Asia was mainly distributed in a large ''dust belt'' extending from west to east from northern part of the Caspian lowland desert, and concentrated in basins, plains, and other low-altitude areas. Strong dust weather mainly occurred in northern areas of the Aral Sea and southern edge of Central Asia, with a maximum annual frequency of 21.9%; (2) strong dust weather in Central Asia has fluctuated and slightly decreased since 2001. The highest frequency (1.1%) occurred in spring (from March to June); (3) from 2000 to 2020, changes such as spot shifting and shrinking occurred in the four main source areas (north of the Aral Sea, Kyzylkum Desert, Karakum Desert, and Garabogazköl Bay region), where sandstorms occurred in Central Asia, and northern Caspian lowland desert became the most important low-emission dust source in Central Asia; and (4) the combined effect of soil moisture and air temperature has the most significant influence on dust weather in Central Asia. This study provides a theoretical basis for sand prevention and sand control in Central Asia. In the future, Central Asia should focus on the rational utilization of land and water resources, and implement human interventions such as vegetation restoration and optimization of irrigation methods to curb further desertification in this area.
Liu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.