Studying the Effects of Dust on Weather

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue intends to feature current efforts towards understanding the effects of mineral dust on weather at all scales and bring more attention from the operational and research communities to this important subject. Dust aerosols can directly interact with radiation and change the energy budget of the atmosphere and surface, modifying the thermal and dynamical structure of the atmosphere. In addition, suspended dust particles can serve as both cloud condensation and ice nuclei, thus, potentially altering cloud microphysical processes. All of these dust-induced changes are likely to affect cloud properties, storm life cycles, and precipitation charateristics. In extreme cases, dust may completely determine a storm’s fate, such as in the case of tropical cyclone genesis in the Atlantic where dust may either encourage or discourage storm formation. While mineral dust aerosols are often most abundant over and near source regions (e.g., Saharan Desert and Gobi Desert), they can be transported far from such areas, giving dust the potential to affect weather over large portions of the Earth. The effects of dust–radiation–cloud interactions on weather and climate have been studied, but our understanding of how these dust physical processes modify weather and climate is still limited and requires additional study. Due to the large, daunting uncertainty in long-term climate simulations introduced by aerosol-radiation-cloud interactions, this Special Issue emphasizes the impact of dust on weather, which will help us better understand the physics of dust–atmosphere processes and solidify the foundation for modeling and understanding the effects of mineral dust on climate and weather.

Manuscripts related to the effects of dust on weather at all ranges (medium-range, monthly, seasonal) from observations and modeling are welcome for this Special Issue.

Prof. Shu-Hua Chen
Dr. Angela Benedetti
Guest Editors

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.

• dust
• aerosol
• dust-cloud-radiation interaction
• thermal wind
• cloud condensation nuclei
• ice nuclei
• radiation
• microphysics
• weather
• cloud