Spot research and analysis conducted in more than 40 cities in northern parts of China since August have revealed the dust storms travel mainly through Mongolia, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, East China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan and the northwest Pacific Ocean.

Research has also discovered that both the frequency and intensity of dust storms have grown more severe in the past few years.

This finding has been obtained with the assistance of advanced technology like radar-controlled remote sensing equipment and satellite tracking, said Quan Hao, director of the research programme under the State Environmental Protection Administration. He was speaking Monday at a seminar in Hohhot, capital city of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

According to Quan, the two major sand sources in southeastern Mongolia and east Kazakhstan and three regions of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are headstreams in central and northeastern Asian regions.

"Strong winds each spring season blow sands to eastern and northern regions," Quan said.

Over the past three years, strong dust storms have swept across central and eastern Asia with unprecedented frequency and impact. Large cities like Beijing and Seoul have experienced choking dust storms in spring.

Public concern is running high in these countries, where scientific studies of the climatic phenomenon have been independently carried out for years.

But dust storms are not confined within the territory of any specific country, said Shi Guangyu, an atmospheric physicist. Their formation, scenario and impact are international.

"That makes international co-operation more necessary in this research area than in any other," he said. "This is truly international research."

When dust storms originating in central Asia's desert areas roared eastwards last spring, their presence was even noted in eastern and southern Pacific regions.

China and Japan have led an international co-operation by launching a dust storm research programme two years ago.

Scientists set up an observation network under the programme, stretching from the west of China on the brink of the Taklamakan Desert to Tokyo. It observes dust storm movement in the hope of capturing its course of movement.

Shi, chief scientist representing the Chinese side involved in the programme, said successful co-operation between Chinese and Japanese scientists has provided the impetus to launch a larger, multi-national effort involving countries such as Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

"They are closer to the presumed origins of dust storms but we unfortunately did not have many exchanges until recently," he said.

Scientists from 10 countries met in Beijing in October and launched the first international programme to study the climatic phenomenon, especially the sandstorms, in the region.

"I feel the proposal comes at the right time. Only international co-operation can result in valuable research in this field," said Youngsin Chun, a researcher at the Meteorological Research Institute of Korea who attended the workshop.

(China Daily January 28, 2003)