A Review of Satellite Constraints on Airborne Dust: What We Can Say, and What We Can't

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 2077 USA

^* Corresponding author: ralph.a.kahn@nasa.gov

Abstract

This is a review paper rather than the report on a single line of research. Satellites offer a broad range of constraints on dust particle amount, daily and longer-scale 3-d spatial distribution, particle properties, source locations, and transport pathways. Yet, the data contain spatial and temporal gaps, lack detail in some important respects, and interpretation of the remote-sensing retrieval results requires careful consideration of the information content, which can vary greatly with observing conditions. To date, these data have been applied much more extensively to dust from North African sources, and their journey across the Atlantic, than to Asian sources and Pacific transports, offering rich opportunities for future work.