Interactions of Asian mineral dust with Indian summer monsoon: Recent advances and challenges

The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is one of the world?s strongest monsoon systems that brings about eighty percent of the annual rainfall to the Indian subcontinent and impacts the livelihood of more than a quarter of the world?s population. Meanwhile, Asia is the world?s second largest dust source?with major deserts in the Middle East, Central and East Asia. The interactions between the Asian dust and the ISM have received increasing attention in recent decades. Dust particles can modulate the circulation and precipitation of the ISM through absorption of solar and terrestrial radiation when suspending in the atmosphere and when deposited in snow and ice at surface and by acting as nuclei of liquid and ice clouds. In turn, the ISM can affect dust emissions, transport, and deposition through atmospheric circulation and wet scavenging. This review provides a) an overview of several physical mechanisms behind the interactions between the ISM rainfall and the Asian dust particularly the Middle East dust, b) a new hypothesis to explain the observed positive correlation between the Middle East dust and the ISM rainfall, and c) a summary of current progress and challenges in dust simulation in climate models. Finally, we propose future research directions aimed at improving dust?monsoon simulations in terms of dust long-term variability, absorbing property, and anthropogenic contributions.

Automated summary

The Indian summer monsoon is crucial for providing the majority of annual rainfall to the Indian subcontinent and affecting over a quarter of the world's population. Asia is also a significant source of dust, and the interactions between dust and the monsoon are increasingly studied. Dust particles can modulate monsoon circulation and precipitation, while the monsoon can in turn influence dust emissions and deposition.