[1] The processes that determine which areas are strong sources of mineral aerosols are not well known. In this study we consider the role of ephemeral lakes in modulating emissions of atmospheric mineral aerosols. We focus on two ephemeral lake regions that have been identified as source regions: the zone of Chotts in Tunisia and Algeria, and Etosha Pan in Namibia. Comparisons of satellite ret...

Water scarcity is one of the factors limiting plant growth and development. More than onethird of the global terrestrial ecosystems is located in arid and semi-arid regions. The mostimportant limiting factor for plant growth is water shortage. Drought could significantlychange the natural vegetation cover. Rainfall reduction in Iraq, Turkey and Syria hasreduced vegetation cover so that dust sto...

Observations of far-infrared (FIR) and submillimeter (SMM) polarized emission are used to study magnetic fields and dust grains in dense regions of the interstellar medium (ISM). These observations place constraints on models of molecular clouds, star-formation, grain alignment mechanisms, and grain size, shape, and composition. The FIR/SMM polarization is strongly dependent on wavelength. We h...

The formation of massive stars may take place at relatively low accretion rates over a long period of time if the accretion can continue past the onset of core hydrogen ignition. The accretion may continue despite the formation of an ionized HII region around the star if the HII region is small enough that the gravitational attraction of the star dominates the thermal pressure of the HII region...

Soil aeolian erodibility is the efficiency with which soil produces dust for a given meteorological forcing. Quantifying soil erodibility is crucial for forecasting dust events and the climatological distribution and forcing of dust. We use long term station observations and satellite indices of mineral dust to ascertain the role of regional topography, geomorphology, and hydrology in controlli...

Dust particles suspended in the dusty Martian atmosphere are prone to being charged. In this paper, we investigate effect of net charges carried by dust on radiative properties dust. We find that significantly alter extinction and single scattering albedo at thermal infrared radiation band, which results an enhancement heating rate, up 6.36%. show discrepancy between atmospheric temperature pre...

Mineral dust is a contributor of the global aerosol budget, with arid regions as principal sources. IPCC (2007) gives a best estimate of the direct mineral dust radiative forcing (RF), with the highest uncertainty in the radiative balance estimations being associated to mineral dust for both its direct and indirect effects. In addition, differentiating the anthropogenic influenced dust has impo...

Atmospheric inputs to the ocean of dust originating from Africa are compared with downward dust flux in the oceanic water column. Atmospheric fluxes were estimated using remote-sensing-derived dust optical thickness and parameters from a transport/deposition model (TM2z). Oceanic fluxes were measured directly over/in two regions of contrasting primary productivity of the northeastern tropical A...