Atmospheric Mineral Dust - Properties and Source Markers

Mineral dust particles from arid regions of the earth are a substantial fraction of the atmospheric aerosol. Due to long range transport mineral dust is found in all types of airmasses and thus in remote regions too. Physical and chemical properties allow to distinguish mineral aerosols easily from other types of aerosols. Many characteristic features are similar to those of global average crust. Only major deviations from this mean composition are reflected by the mineral aerosol composition. In order to derive source characteristic features from mineral dust samples advanced statistical methods coupled with various analytical tools from the mineralogy and chemistrymust be applied.