Abstract
The desiccation of the Aral Sea ranks among the largest man-made ecological catastrophes and has become a global symbol for the overexploitation of limited resources and the environmental and socio-economic consequences caused thereby. Formerly the fourth largest inland lake, large parts of the Aral Sea have been transformed into a salty desert – the Aralkum. The exposed lake bed sediments are subject to wind erosion, resulting in white sand and dust storms which have been tracked over several hundred kilometers using remote sensing images. Dust deposition data, on the other hand, requires excessive field work over prolonged periods of time and thus is scarce. In order to learn more about the spatial and temporal dynamics of the dust deposition in the Aral Sea region and in order to evaluate the influence of the Aralkum, the passive dust deposition data from 23 meteorological stations in the Aral Sea basin has been monitored between 2006 and 2012 in the framework of three research projects.