Study of dust haze in arid zone

Regularities in the effect of dust haze on the thermal regime of the air surface layer are revealed by examining air-temperature measurement data obtained at the Dushanbe, Termez, Bairam-Ali, Repetek, and Kurgan-Tyube meteorological stations. We find that the sharp decrease in daily air temperature and the slight increase in night temperature until the 1990s under strong dust storms leads to decreased temperatures in the air surface layer. Later, dust hazes of 3 to 8 days are more frequently observed with a pulsating change in the horizontal range of visibility. Depending on their power, these hazes lead to either heating or cooling of the atmospheric surface layer.