title: Quantifying global dust devil occurrence from meteorological analyses.
abstract: Dust devils and nonrotating dusty plumes are effective uplift mechanisms for fine particles, but their contribution to the global dust budget is uncertain. By applying known bulk thermodynamic criteria to European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational analyses, we provide the first global hourly climatology of potential dust devil and dusty plume (PDDP) occurrence. In agreement with observations, activity is highest from late morning into the afternoon. Combining PDDP frequencies with dust source maps and typical emission values gives the best estimate of global contributions of 3.4% (uncertainty 0.9-31%), 1 order of magnitude lower than the only estimate previously published. Total global hours of dust uplift by dry convection are ∼0.002% of the dust-lifting winds resolved by ECMWF, consistent with dry convection making a small contribution to global uplift. Reducing uncertainty requires better knowledge of factors controlling PDDP occurrence, source regions, and dust fluxes induced by dry convection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Global potential dust devil occurrence quantified from meteorological analyses Climatology shows realistic diurnal cycle and geographical distribution Best estimate of global contribution of 3.4% is 10 times smaller than the previous estimate.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Bradley C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Jemmett-Smith
authors.affiliation: Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds Leeds, UK ; National Centre for Atmospheric Science Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Marsham
authors.affiliation: Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Knippertz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Thermofluids, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Carl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Gilkeson
keywords: climatology; dry convection; dust devils; dust emission; dusty plumes; vortices