An Analysis of the Physical Characteristics of the Summer Low Atmosphere in the Gobi Desert Adjacent to Bosten Lake, Xinjiang, China

A month-long field observation campaign was conducted, which covered approximately 100 km2 of the Gobi Desert area on the southeast bank of Bosten Lake during the summer of 2016. The purpose of the study was to examine the physical characteristics of the low atmosphere over land-lake nonuniform underlying surfaces in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China. The results of the statistical analysis showed that, during the observational period, the average daytime surface horizontal thermal gradient reached up to −0.2°C/km from the lakeshore to southern Gobi Desert area. The near-surface wind field of the 7 km horizontal extent from the lakeshore was dominated by onshore breezes with average peak wind speeds above 5 m/s. In the atmospheric near-surface layer, an isohumidity layer at a height between 10 and 50 m a.g.l. was observed from 11:00 to 18:00 LST. Also, a case study for the atmospheric boundary layer and local circulation analyses was conducted. The onshore breezes were found to play a major role in the vertical structure of the local atmospheric boundary layer. The numerical simulation results indicated that there was an alternating day-night local circulation in the Bosten Lake area.

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