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...

[1] Climate forcing by mineral dust aerosols is one of the most uncertain processes in our current understanding of climate change. The main natural sources of dust aerosols are blowing dust, dust devils, and dust storms. Electric fields larger than 100 kV/m have been measured in these phenomena. Theoretical calculations and laboratory experiments show that these electric fields produce electri...

BACKGROUND Agricultural workers are exposed to airborne pollutants, including organic and inorganic (mineral) dusts. OBJECTIVES Lung autopsy specimens from consecutive coroner's cases of Hispanic males in Fresno County, California, (n = 112) were obtained to determine whether mineral dust exposure in agricultural work leads to pneumoconiosis. METHODS The left lung was fixed by inflation. We...

This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in ACP if available. Abstract The aim of this study is to determine the mass deposition flux of mineral dust to the tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (CVAO) on the island Sao Vicente for January 2009. Five...

Mass deposition fluxes of mineral dust to the tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean were determined within this study. In the framework of SOPRAN (Surface Ocean Processes in the Anthropocene), the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean in terms of material exchange were investigated at the Cape Verde atmospheric observatory (CVAO) on the island Sao Vicente for January 2009. Five different...

This proposal outlines a program of scientific research and educational development focused on mineral dust aerosol, atmospheric chemistry, and curricular use of satellite data. Mineral dust impacts the chemical composition of the atmosphere by providing a surface for heterogeneous chemistry, and for light scattering and absorption at photolytic wavelengths. We propose to assess the current and...

one of the world's major mineral dust source regions lies along the border between iran and afghanistan. in this studyit is hypothesized that a low-level jet may play in role in generating the intensity of this source region. the presence of alow-level jet east of the seistan mountains is documented here for the first time. the jet exists mainly from may toseptember and has a core at 850 mb. ma...

Mineral phases and their content were determined in attic dust samples collected from 27 houses in the Tikveš Valley, Republic of Macedonia. By using quantitative X-ray diffraction, the principal mineral phases were determined to be the serpentinite group (chrysotile, lizardite) and amphibole group of minerals (ribecite, tremolite, actinolite) present in the attic dust samples from this region ...

Atmospheric nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAHs), which have been shown to have adverse health effects such as carcinogenicity, are formed in part through nitration reactions of their parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the atmosphere. However, little is known about heterogeneous nitration rates of PAHs by gaseous NO2 on natural mineral substrates, such as desert dust...