Unveiling global haboob behavior with a kilometer-scale aerosol-climate model

Haboob dust storms, formed by the cold pool outflow from moist convection, play a significant role in global dust emissions. However, they are largely absent in current global climate models, as most do not explicitly resolve convection processes, leading to considerable inaccuracies in modeling global dust and its impacts. Therefore, the global influence of haboobs on the dust cycle and the Earth system remains poorly understood. With the advent of kilometer-scale Earth system models, there is a unique opportunity to unveil the global haboob behavior and advance our understanding of their impacts.

In this study, we implemented physics-based dust emission schemes in the ICON-HAM-lite model, a new kilometer-scale Earth system model developed in the nextGEMS project. A one-year model simulation was conducted globally at a 5 km resolution including online dust simulation. A haboob detection algorithm was developed and applied to track haboobs, allowing us to analyze their global characteristics and variability. This includes their spatial distribution, seasonal and diurnal cycles, duration, and size. Additionally, the contribution of haboobs to global dust emissions was evaluated.

This study provides what is, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive analysis of haboobs on a global scale based on the current literature, shedding light on their critical role in the global dust cycle. These findings highlight the benefits of using global kilometer-scale models, specifically emphasizing their potential to improve dust simulation accuracy in climate models by explicitly including convection.