Abstract
This paper combines a review on the importance of dust composition with respect to numerous atmospheric impacts with field measurements performed in African and Central Asian dust. In the review part, the most important dust components and their relevance for certain processes are outlined. Typical compositions from bulk measurements for African and Asian dust are presented. Generally the local variation in composition can be higher than the differences between Asian and African dust and their according specific sources. While similar general results are available from individual particle analyses, these investigations add important information on mixing state and homogeneity of composition. Atmospheric aging of mineral dust is observed globally, depending on transport distances from the sources and transport environment. As an illustration, comparative field measurements of African and Asian dust deposition are presented.
Highlights
Mineral dust undoubtedly is one of the most important aerosol types in the Earth system [1]
The thermal radiation budget is considerably impacted by dust mineralogy [10, 11]
Atmospheric mineral dust is emitted from surfaces of the Earth by different processes, mainly saltationsandblasting and aggregate fragmentation [40, 41]
Summary
Mineral dust undoubtedly is one of the most important aerosol types in the Earth system [1]. Dust derived from soils is among the largest contributors to the global aerosol burden [2] It dominates climate effects over considerable areas of the world [3,4,5]. Dust modifies cloud cycles macroscopically by changing atmospheric stability conditions [12], and microscopically by modifying cloud condensation and ice nucleating processes [13, 14], affecting the global water cycle and indirectly climate. The latter effect is depending on dust composition and mixing state [15, 16]. In addition to bulk composition properties, a second section deals with individual particle properties, as particle to particle variation may have a considerable impact on dust behavior
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