By utilizing top-of-atmosphere radiation (TOAR) data from China’s new generation of geostationary satellites (FY-4A and FY-4B) along with interpretable machine learning models, near-surface particulate matter concentrations in China were estimated, achieving hourly temporal resolution, 4 km spatial resolution, and 100% spatial coverage. First, the cloudless TOAR data were matched and modeled with the solar radiation products from the ERA5 dataset to construct and estimate a fully covered TOAR dataset under assumed clear-sky conditions, which increased coverage from 20–30% to 100%. Subsequently, this dataset was applied to estimate particulate matter. The analysis demonstrated that the fully covered TOAR dataset (R² = 0.83) performed better than the original cloudless dataset (R² = 0.76). Additionally, using feature importance scores and SHAP values, the impact of meteorological factors and air mass trajectories on the increase in PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 during dust events were investigated. The analysis of haze events indicated that the main meteorological factors driving changes in particulate matter included air pressure, temperature, and boundary layer height. The particulate matter concentration products obtained using fully covered TOAR data exhibit high coverage and high spatiotemporal resolution. Combined with data-driven interpretable machine learning, they can effectively reveal the influencing factors of particulate matter in China.

East Asian spring dust activity has generally weakened since the early 2000s, but severe dust events continue to occur when synoptic forcing, source-region dryness, and terrain-guided transport are favorably coupled. This study places the 19-23 March 2023 East Asian dust storm within a 2000-2024 spring dust background and examines its horizontal transport, vertical evolution, source-receptor relationships, and topographic modulation. Long-term diagnostics based on MERRA-2 dust column mass concentration (DUCMASS), MAIAC aerosol optical depth (AOD), ERA5 meteorological fields, and land-surface variables show a broad decrease in spring dust loading, with a domain-mean Theil-Sen trend of -1.07 x 10^-6 yr^-1 and significant Mann-Kendall pixels covering 61.87% of the analysis domain. Against this declining background, the March 2023 event developed as a dual-source relay-convergence process. Taklamakan Desert dust was emitted first on 19 March and was transported southeastward along the Hexi Corridor, whereas Mongolian Plateau dust intensified on 21 March and mainly affected North China. TROPOMI absorbing aerosol index (AAI), CALIPSO vertical profiles, ground PM₁₀ observations, CAMS EAC4 dust fields, ERA5 synoptic diagnostics, and FLEXPART-WRF forward and backward simulations jointly indicate that multi-level cold-vortex/trough-frontal coupling and terrain blocking controlled the event. The results show that extreme dust episodes can still occur under a weakening long-term dust background when dynamic lifting, dual-source activation, and topographic channeling act together.

East Asian spring dust activity has generally weakened since the early 2000s (Theil-Sen trend −1.07 × 10⁻⁶ yr⁻¹, significant over 62% of the domain), but severe events continue to occur when synoptic forcing, source-region dryness, and terrain-guided transport are favorably coupled. This study places the 19–23 March 2023 East Asian dust storm within this 2000–2024 background and provides an integrated three-dimensional analysis of its transport, vertical structure, and topographic controls. The event developed as a dual-source relay-convergence process: Taklamakan Desert dust was emitted first on 19 March and transported southeastward along the Hexi Corridor, while Mongolian Plateau dust intensified on 21 March and mainly affected North China. Independently calibrated, PM10-cross-validated FLEXPART-WRF trajectory arrays (R = 0.74–0.81) show Taklamakan contributed 100% of the calibrated near-surface dust mass at Lanzhou and Mongolian 98% at Beijing during each receptor’s event peak window. Four independent dynamical diagnostics quantify topographic control, showing the Helan Mountains attenuate westward-approaching Taklamakan dust by 23% across the range. TROPOMI AAI, CALIPSO, ground PM10, and CAMS EAC4 jointly corroborate multi-level cold-vortex/trough-frontal coupling and terrain blocking as the controlling mechanisms, demonstrating that extreme dust episodes can still occur under a weakening long-term background when dynamic lifting, dual-source activation, and topographic channeling act together.