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Atmosphere
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Soil/Mineral Dust Aerosols in the Earth System
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Soil/Mineral Dust Aerosols in the Earth System

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Aerosols".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2020) | Viewed by 16340

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jan P. Perlwitz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Climate, Aerosol, and Pollution Research, LLC, Bronx, New York, USA; NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA
Interests: earth system modeling; soil dust aerosol modeling; mineralogical composition of dust; heterogeneous ice nucleation; heterogeneous chemistry; soluble iron cycle; dust on Mars and exoplanets; nonlinear dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In 1846, Charles Darwin wrote his report for the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society about 15 instances of dust from Africa which had fallen on the decks of ships in the Atlantic. More than a 150 years later, the abundance of soil (mineral) dust aerosols, their physical and chemical properties, their role in weather and climate, and their impact on humans and society are systematically studied using various measurement techniques and models.

Dust is one of the most important aerosols in the Earth system. It directly alters radiative fluxes in the atmosphere by scattering and absorbing radiation in the shortwave and longwave range of the spectrum. The redistribution of radiative energy by dust aerosols influences the thermodynamic environment for cloud formation, which also affects the hydrological cycle and large-scale atmospheric circulation. Dust particles are also involved in cloud microphysical processes, since they can act as cloud condensation nuclei or ice-nucleating particles. Dust particles take up trace gases by heterogeneous chemical reactions, they mix with other aerosols, and by carrying and processing nutrients such as soluble iron, they are very important for the biogeochemical cycles of the planet. Bacteria and fungi are advected with dust, potentially affecting human health. It has been increasingly recognized that an improved understanding of the involvement of dust aerosols in the aforementioned processes requires the consideration of a proper description of their physical parameters, their mineralogical and chemical composition, and the mixing of dust particles with other aerosols.

For this Special Issue, we invite you to present your new research on the diverse and complex properties of soil dust aerosols as well as how dust aerosols are involved in the various processes in the Earth system. Both measurement and modeling studies are welcome.

Dr. Jan P. Perlwitz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil dust aerosols
  • dust size distribution
  • dust composition
  • dust radiative effect
  • cloud condensation nuclei
  • heterogeneous ice nucleation
  • dust heterogeneous chemistry
  • biogeochemical cycles
  • soluble iron cycle
  • dust–climate interaction

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2064 KiB  
Article
Differences and Similarities of Central Asian, African, and Arctic Dust Composition from a Single Particle Perspective
by Konrad Kandler, Kilian Schneiders, Johannes Heuser, Andebo Waza, Sudharaj Aryasree, Dietrich Althausen, Julian Hofer, Sabur F. Abdullaev and Abduvosit N. Makhmudov
Atmosphere 2020, 11(3), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11030269 - 8 Mar 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4807
Abstract
Mineral dust composition affects a multitude of processes in the atmosphere and adjacent compartments. Dust dry deposition was collected near source in northwest Africa, in Central Asia, and on Svalbard and at three locations of the African outflow regime. Samples were subjected to [...] Read more.
Mineral dust composition affects a multitude of processes in the atmosphere and adjacent compartments. Dust dry deposition was collected near source in northwest Africa, in Central Asia, and on Svalbard and at three locations of the African outflow regime. Samples were subjected to automated scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis to obtain size and composition of 216,000 individual particles. Results show low temporal variation in estimated optical properties for each location, but considerable differences between the African, Central Asian, and Arctic regimes. No significant difference was found between the K-feldspar relative abundances, indicating comparable related ice-nucleation abilities. The mixing state between calcium and iron compounds was different for near source and transport regimes, potentially in part due to size sorting effects. As a result, in certain situations (high acid availability, limited time) atmospheric processing of the dust is expected to lead to less increased iron solubility for near-source dusts (in particular for Central Asian ones) than for transported ones (in particular of Sahelian origin). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil/Mineral Dust Aerosols in the Earth System)
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76 pages, 7517 KiB  
Article
Composition of Modern Dust and Holocene Aeolian Sediments in Archaeological Structures of the Southern Levant
by Bernhard Lucke, Amir Sandler, Kim André Vanselow, Hendrik J. Bruins, Nizar Abu-Jaber, Rupert Bäumler, Naomi Porat and Paula Kouki
Atmosphere 2019, 10(12), 762; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10120762 - 30 Nov 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4331
Abstract
Archaeological structures are often filled with sediments and may serve as effective dust traps. The physical parameters and chemical composition of archaeological soils in hilltop ruins, ancient runoff-collecting terraces, and cleanout spoils of cisterns were determined in the Petra region in southern Jordan [...] Read more.
Archaeological structures are often filled with sediments and may serve as effective dust traps. The physical parameters and chemical composition of archaeological soils in hilltop ruins, ancient runoff-collecting terraces, and cleanout spoils of cisterns were determined in the Petra region in southern Jordan and the Northern Negev in Israel. Different types of ruins are characterized by certain soil structures, but could not be distinguished with regard to substrate composition. This reflects a predominance of aeolian processes for primary sedimentation, while fluvial processes seem to only re-distribute aeolian material. In the Petra region, the physical and chemical properties of all archaeological soils show a significant local contribution from associated weathered rocks. Compared to modern settled dust, archaeological soils in Southern Jordan are enriched with various major and trace elements associated with clays and oxide coatings of fine silt particles. This seems connected with preferential fixation of silt and clay by surface crusts, and a role of moisture in sedimentation processes as calcareous silt was found to be deposited in greater amounts when associated with precipitation. In contrast, the contribution of rocks is negligible in the Negev due to greater rock hardness and abundant biological crusts that seal surfaces. Archaeological soils in the Negev are chemically similar to current settled dust, which consists of complex mixtures of local and remote sources, including significant portions of recycled material from paleosols. Archaeological soils are archives of Holocene dust sources and aeolian sedimentation processes, with accretion rates exceeding those of Pleistocene hilltop loess in the Negev. Comparison with Pleistocene paleosols suggests that dust sources did not change significantly, but disappearance of snow could have reduced dust accumulation during the Holocene. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil/Mineral Dust Aerosols in the Earth System)
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17 pages, 6232 KiB  
Article
Dust Heterogeneous Reactions during Long-Range Transport of a Severe Dust Storm in May 2017 over East Asia
by Zhe Wang, Itsushi Uno, Keiya Yumimoto, Xiaole Pan, Xueshun Chen, Jie Li, Zifa Wang, Atsushi Shimizu and Nobuo Sugimoto
Atmosphere 2019, 10(11), 680; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10110680 - 6 Nov 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3083
Abstract
Dust aerosol has important climate and environmental effects, which could be changed by internally mixing with anthropogenic aerosol as a result of heterogeneous reactions; however, the importance of these reactions is not fully understood yet. In this study, synergetic observations and an air [...] Read more.
Dust aerosol has important climate and environmental effects, which could be changed by internally mixing with anthropogenic aerosol as a result of heterogeneous reactions; however, the importance of these reactions is not fully understood yet. In this study, synergetic observations and an air quality model were used to analyze the transport of a severe dust storm and its impacts on nitrate and sulfate levels over East Asia between 3 and 11 May 2017. The model successfully reproduced the occurrence and transport of the dust storm compared to dust RGB imageries of the Himawari-8 satellite and dust extinction coefficients observed by LIDAR. The model also reasonably simulated the variations of observed nitrate and sulfate concentrations, and the results indicated that the dust heterogeneous reactions were dominant pathways for nitrate formation, but they had limited contribution for sulfate in both fine and coarse mode in Fukuoka, Japan. Dust nitrate formed rapidly after leaving China, and the highest period-averaged concentration of dust nitrate (>5 μg m−3) was shown over the Yellow Sea. Based on model results; we found that the mass ratio of dust nitrate to dust aerosol could reach 10% over the Pacific Ocean. Our results confirmed the importance of heterogeneous reactions on compositions of dust particles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil/Mineral Dust Aerosols in the Earth System)
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14 pages, 8025 KiB  
Article
Inverting the East Asian Dust Emission Fluxes Using the Ensemble Kalman Smoother and Himawari-8 AODs: A Case Study with WRF-Chem v3.5.1
by Tie Dai, Yueming Cheng, Daisuke Goto, Nick A. J. Schutgens, Maki Kikuchi, Mayumi Yoshida, Guangyu Shi and Teruyuki Nakajima
Atmosphere 2019, 10(9), 543; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10090543 - 12 Sep 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3629
Abstract
We present the inversions (back-calculations or optimizations) of dust emissions for a severe winter dust event over East Asia in November 2016. The inversion system based on a fixed-lag ensemble Kalman smoother is newly implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting model and [...] Read more.
We present the inversions (back-calculations or optimizations) of dust emissions for a severe winter dust event over East Asia in November 2016. The inversion system based on a fixed-lag ensemble Kalman smoother is newly implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting model and is coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). The assimilated observations are the hourly aerosol optical depths (AODs) from the next-generation geostationary satellite Himawari-8. The posterior total dust emissions (2.59 Tg) for this event are 3.8 times higher than the priori total dust emissions (0.68 Tg) during 25–27 November 2016. The net result is that the simulated aerosol horizontal and vertical distributions are both in better agreement with the assimilated Himawari-8 observations and independent observations from the ground-based AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET), the satellite-based Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO). The developed emission inversion approach, combined with the geostationary satellite observations, can be very helpful for properly estimating the Asian dust emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil/Mineral Dust Aerosols in the Earth System)
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