Remote Sensing of the Global Dust Cycle

Dear Colleagues,

The dust cycle can play an important role in the land–atmosphere–ocean system through interaction with biogeochemical cycles and direct and indirect radiative forcing of the atmosphere. One of the limiting factors for existing global models of dust transport, atmospheric processing and deposition is the quality and availability of data to allow evaluation and validation of emission schemes against data from specific source regions.

These source regions are, by definition, the starting point of the dust cycle and are therefore important in determining the potential global and regional impact of dust because the sources themselves exert a fundamental control on dust properties (i.e., particle size, mineral and chemical composition).

The harsh environments (at high and low latitudes) coupled with the complex and dynamic nature of the dust emission process itself often preclude effective fieldwork regimes in dust source regions. Consequently, the use of remote sensing data in the past 20 years (e.g., via TOMS, MODIS, MISR, MSG-SEVIRI, GOES-R, etc.) has underpinned much of our understanding of both the spatial distribution and temporal variability exhibited by dust sources and associated dust plumes. Nevertheless, the discrete and heterogeneous nature of the dust emission process is often not well matched to the spatial and temporal sample offered by these global-scale data, especially where cloudiness obscures intermittent dust fluxes.

Recent advances in remote sensing studies of the dust cycle have therefore sought to work at a regional scale and have focused on linking remote sensing observations and geomorphological signatures within source regions (i.e., at sub-basin scales). The goal of these studies has been to improve characterisation of candidate surfaces in dust modelling, thereby allowing better estimates of dust emission to be made. These endeavours have been facilitated significantly by the recent increase in availability of high-resolution remote sensing data (e.g., CubeSat, DOVE constellation, Sentinel-2, Landsat-8) and will be further complimented via data emanating from the forthcoming the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument on the International Space Station (ISS). Initial studies involving the use of UAS/UAV systems are also available. However, it is clear that there remain some significant challenges to the generation of close synergies between remote sensing observations and viable ground-based geomorphological/geochemical/climatological information.

Given the recent rapid advances in this field, we invite papers on the following dust cycle and dust source research topics that are currently underpinned by use of remote sensing data at global and regional scales:

• Dust source mapping and monitoring at both high and low latitudes;
• Characterisation and mapping of dust events emanating from key source regions;
• Dust source investigation and characterisation at basin and sub-basin scales;
• Case studies involving the integration of remote sensing and ground observations of the dust cycle.

Dr. Rob Bryant
Guest Editor

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