Dust storms are often natural hazards, as they can affect ecosystems for time intervals ranging from a few hours to a few days. Due to the significant impact of dust storms on Earth’s energy balance and climate, as well as on air quality, human health, and ecosystems, different instrumentation and techniques have been used to investigate such events. In order to improve scientific understanding of dust aerosols, their source regions, and their effect on global climate, a worldwide effort has been undertaken in the last three decades to produce global dust-aerosol climatology by combining satellite observations and measurements from ground-based monitoring networks. Although progress has been made in characterizing the importance of mineral dust in global-scale processes, significant further research is needed, addressing such issues as the distribution of dust in the atmosphere and removal processes, the improvement in boundary conditions in the models that can result in more accurate prediction of dust transport, the diversity of dust optical and mineralogical properties, the environmental processes that affect dust generation in the source regions, the meteorological factors that control the dust transport, and the impact dust has on regional and global meteorology itself. In addition, mineral and desert dust plays an important role in radiative forcing by attenuating the incoming solar radiation and heating the lower and middle troposphere and can feed back on mesoscale and larger-scale atmospheric dynamics. This special issue seeks manuscripts that focus on analyzing the dust-aerosol optical and physical-chemical properties, the seasonal variability of dust outbreaks, the quantification of dust sources and sinks strength, the regional and synoptic meteorological conditions that favor the exposure and transport of dust, the dust interaction with clouds and precipitation, and the dust effects on regional and global circulation and climate. It is hoped that the submitted studies will shed light on these vital issues for our changing planet. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Optical, physical, and chemical properties of dust
• Definition of dust source regions, transport pathways, and sinks
• Meteorological patterns associated with dust outflows
• Satellite monitoring of the dust storms and dust aerosols
• Dust-cloud precipitation interactions
• Dust impacts on meteorology and climate
• Dust modeling
• Impact of dust on ocean productivity and ecosystems
• Dust contribution to particulate matter and surface air quality

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