Poster Session 1

Read more about each poster below

Poster Session 1 — 10:30 AM–12:00 PM

Poster	Title	Authors	Abstract
P1.1	Physics-Informed AI Framework for NASA MERRA-2/GOCART PM10 Bias Correction Across Compound and Cascading Extremes	Farnaz Hosseinpour	Mineral dust is both an air-quality hazard and a climate-relevant aerosol, affecting radiative transfer and cloud microphysical processes. Across California and Nevada, dust-related PM10 episodes occur within coupled meteorological and land-surface environments shaped by surface winds, boundary-layer mixing, soil moisture and land-surface state, and synoptic-scale circulation governing regional transport; they may also overlap with wildfire smoke during drought, heatwaves, and other extremes. Yet the representation of surface PM10 during compound and time-ordered cascading extremes requires rigorous, event-aware evaluation. To address this gap, this study develops a physics-informed AI-based framework to improve NASA MERRA-2/GOCART surface PM10 estimates using ground-based observations. AI-based bias-correction models will incorporate process-relevant meteorological, land-surface, and fire-related predictors, while complementary statistical dependence and event-sequence analyses will characterize PM10 concentrations, transport, and persistence across baseline, single-hazard, compound, and cascading-event conditions. Time-aware cross-validation and an independent future-period test will quantify PM10 prediction and bias-correction performance under baseline, single-hazard, compound, and cascading-event conditions. Diagnostics of surface winds, boundary-layer mixing, soil moisture, land-surface state, and synoptic circulation will interpret the physical environments associated with PM10 variability and model bias. The study will establish a process-informed framework for evaluating and improving MERRA-2/GOCART PM10 estimates across single-hazard, compound, and cascading extreme-event regimes.
P1.2	Impacts of Arabian Dust on Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation Intensity and Propagation	Marco Rossi, Yang Yu, Shu-Hua Chen	The Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation (BSISO) is a northeastward-propagating dipole of enhanced and suppressed convection that plays a major role in regulating South Asian Monsoon activity. Under the moisture mode framework, the BSISO is governed by column moisture. Specifically, propagation is driven by the anomalous advection of background moisture ahead of the convective envelope, and the intensity is driven by the magnitude of the column moisture in the convective region. Airborne dust can affect local tropospheric meteorology by absorbing and scattering shortwave radiation and emitting longwave radiation. These produce perturbations to background temperature, moisture fields, and large-scale circulations. Dust aerosols can also modulate convection and atmospheric stability through microphysical processes, such as acting as Ice Nucleating Particles (INP). This study, through a coupled atmosphere-dust-ocean model, investigates the microphysical and radiative impacts of Arabian dust on a convective region in the Arabian Sea during July 2022, a month which saw both high dust and BSISO activity. For sensitivity testing, two experiments are conducted: one with complete dust-radiation-cloud effects activated (DON) and the other with dust effects deactivated (DOFF). Comparing DON and DOFF results isolates the dust-driven mechanisms that can impact the background environment in which the BSISO develops.
P1.3	The Rise and Decline of Desert Dust: Changing Climate Impacts Since the Pre-Industrial Era	Jasper Kok, Danny Leung, Ashok Gupta	Atmospheric desert dust has changed substantially since the pre-industrial era, but its historical evolution and contribution to climate forcing remain poorly constrained. We combine a reconstruction based on sedimentary records with satellite-era constraints to assess changes in dust abundance and the associated effective radiative forcing (ERF). Dust abundance increased through much of the industrial period, reaching a maximum in the 1980s of 75 ± 40% above the pre-industrial level. This increase likely produced a progressively more negative dust ERF, partly offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse-gas-driven global warming. Dust abundance has since declined steadily, but remains 25 ± 20% above the pre-industrial level. The post-1980s decline reduced dust cooling, likely shifting dust from slightly opposing to enhancing global warming due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. This sign reversal may have contributed modestly to the acceleration of climate warming over the past few decades. Current climate models do not reproduce the reconstructed historical evolution of dust, limiting their ability to represent its time-varying forcing, slightly biasing the interpretation of historical temperature changes and the prediction of future changes.
P1.4	Climate-driven changes in future dust-favorable conditions over the western United States	Precious Ebiendele, Adeyemi A. Adebiyi, John T. Abatzoglou	Mineral dust aerosols affect air quality and pose public health risks across the western United States, particularly in dust source regions and downwind communities. Recent evidence suggests that anthropogenic warming will intensify land surface drying. However, we still do not know whether future changes will be driven primarily by frequent dust-uplift potential winds, increasingly dry land surface availability, or changes in how often these conditions coincide, which we defined in this study as dust-favorable conditions (DFC). This study examines how climate change may alter the frequency, seasonality, and spatial patterns of DFC days, as well as the population's exposure to DFC. Historical DFC days and their projected future change are evaluated within potential dust source regions using 9-km dynamically downscaled climate projections. In addition, we further characterize the projected changes in high DFC frequency by identifying areas where it persists, intensifies, weakens, or emerges relative to the historical climate. Our preliminary findings have implications for public health assessment and can inform more targeted adaptation planning for populations potentially exposed to transported dust
P1.5	Reliability of long-term trends in fine mineral dust across the US: Evidence from 67 IMPROVE sites	Jiayuan Wang, Nicole Hyslop	Fugitive dust is a generic term for primarily inorganic and coarse particulate matter that is transported via aeolian mechanisms. Problems arise when the source material is from an industrial enterprise and the receptor area is inhabited, thus leading to
P1.6	Dust Emission Potential and Chemical Composition from Recently Exposed Salton Sea Playa and Adjacent Desert Landforms in Southern California, USA	Hank Dickey, Yohannes Yimam, Brian Schmid, Josh Esquivel, William Castello	Over a decade of research with the Portable In-Situ Wind ERosion Lab (PI-SWERL), a small wind tunnel, have quantified the ability of Salton Sea playa and surrounding desert areas in Southern California, USA to produce dust. Emission flux potentials measured monthly between Fall and Spring were parameterized by surface characteristics and meteorological conditions to investigate dust emission variability and controls on PM10. Drivers found to have a significant impact (P < 0.001) on playa emission rates include crust type, loose surface sand, and soil moisture condition; while geomorphic landform was found to be a control on desert emission rates. Parameterized emission rates provide a basis for comparison of relative dust contributions by surface type and serve as inputs to landscape scale dust models. To further contextualize the potential dust emissions, a PI-SWERL attachment was used to collect PM10 onto filters for X-ray fluorescence analysis. In-situ assessments of dust composition indicate the relative abundance of specific elements between landforms and facilitate comparisons with regional and local ambient dust and surface sediments. Considering relative emission rates alongside composition can be used to evaluate the implication of dust produced by the Salton Sea playa and surrounding areas as the Sea continues to recede.
P1.7	Improving Long-Range Saharan Coarse Dust Transport in WRF-Dust	Maddie Wilson, Shu-Hua Chen, Marco Rossi, Allan Lee	Current climate models underpredict global coarse dust aerosol by nearly a factor of four, severely limiting our understanding of dust-climate interactions. Unlike fine dust, which predominantly scatters shortwave radiation to induce atmospheric cooling, coarse dust primarily absorbs short- and longwave radiation and emits longwave radiation, driving net atmospheric warming. Furthermore, larger particles more readily serve as giant cloud condensation and ice nuclei, altering cloud development. To address this persistent model deficiency, we evaluate three physical mechanisms proposed to slow particle gravitational settling during long-range Saharan mineral dust transport: shear-induced turbulence, particle electrification, and dust asphericity. To evaluate mechanisms controlling long-range dust transport, we incorporated non-spherical particle drag into a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Dust modeling framework. Accounting for dust asphericity enhances both the magnitude and spatial extent of simulated Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), yielding substantial improvements when evaluated against satellite observations. Applying additional reduced-settling-velocity schemes to mimic all three mechanisms further improves atmospheric AOD distributions. Ongoing work focuses on explicitly parameterizing turbulent and electrical forces within WRF-Dust to advance our understanding of coarse-mode transport and ultimately reduce key uncertainties in weather, air quality, and climate forecasts.
P1.8	Two Decades of Dust: Spatial, Temporal, and Meteorological Characteristics Across Four U.S. States	Karin Ardon-Dryer, Kelsey Olson	Dust events are one of the main natural contributors to atmospheric aerosols, impacting millions of people across the United States and affecting climate, the environment, visibility, air quality, the economy, and human health and well-being. Therefore, understanding their spatial and temporal distributions and the meteorological conditions associated with their occurrence is crucial. The goal of this project is to characterize the spatial and temporal distribution of dust events across four states: Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. Dust events were identified based on periods with visibility ≤1 km, strong wind speeds >6 m s⁻¹, and the presence of wind gusts, with and without reported dust-related weather codes, including DU (widespread dust), BLDU (blowing dust), HZ (haze), and DS (dust storm). A total of 86 meteorological stations were included in this analysis, with 6,769 dust events, corresponding to 2,848 days with dust, identified between 2000 and 2022 across the four states. Differences in the distribution of dust events among the four states were observed in the number of events per year, month, time of day, and event duration. The dust events were further classified as dust storms and blowing dust events, allowing comparisons of their temporal distributions and associated meteorological conditions.
P1.9	Investigating the Relation Between Saharan Dust and the Phytoplankton in an Upwelling System over the Western North African Coast Using Multiple Satellite Datasets	Erica Liu, Shu-Hua Chen	This study investigates the relation between Saharan dust aerosols and phytoplankton growth in the Senegal-Mauritanian upwelling system. Although experimental studies show aerosol-derived nutrients can stimulate phytoplankton growth, effects of naturally deposited Saharan aerosols on marine productivity remain less understood. We examine atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean chlorophyll concentrations as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass to evaluate the potential role of Saharan dust deposition in regulating phytoplankton dynamics and ecosystem productivity in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Using aerosol optical depth (AOD) from VIIRS-SNPP, VIIRS-NOAA20, and PACE, with a merged multi-sensor chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) product, we examine April and May during 2020–2024. These months were selected because Saharan dust causes significant summer gaps in Chl-a retrievals. In April, AOD and Chl-a showed a moderate positive correlation, strongest at a one-day lag (r = 0.36, p = 0.003). In May, the association was weaker, highest at zero lag (r = 0.22, p = 0.09), and not statistically significant. Alongshore winds and Chl-a were more strongly correlated in May, suggesting wind-driven upwelling may mask aerosol influences. Meteosat-12 Dust RGB composites, EMIT dust mineralogy, and PACE OCI Level-4 MOANA data were used to examine dust transport, composition, and phytoplankton group abundances.
P1.10	From Locating Sources to Identifying Surfaces: Unraveling the Dynamics and Controls of Dust Emission in Lower Mesopotamia and Kuwait	Jasem Albanai, Giles Wiggs, David Thomas	Lower Mesopotamia and Kuwait, exposed to both human pressures and environmental change, represent one of the world’s most active natural dust-source regions. This study integrates multi-sensor satellite observations and field data to identify dust-emitting geomorphic units and quantify their surface controls between 2013 and 2024. MODIS/VIIRS and wind datasets were used to delineate regional dust-source dynamics, while Sentinel-2 and Landsat 7–9 imagery (10–15 m, every 3–4 days) enabled high-resolution mapping of emission zones. Results reveal that inland sabkhas and barchan dunes in Al-Batha generate about 62% of all events (n = 446), followed by the intertidal zone of Subiya (11%, n = 76), coastal sabkhas and flats on Bubiyan Island (10%, n = 68), and the estuarine setting of Al-Faw (9%, n = 61). Collectively, these units cover only 2.5% (≈ 2,743 km²) of the total region (111,042 km²) yet account for the majority of recorded emissions, peaking in June–July under strong Shamal winds exceeding 6.5 m\s. Complementary field and satellite analyses reveal that persistent emitters, such as Al-Batha sabkhas, are characterized by fine, poorly sorted sediments and weak, fragmented crusts, while coastal sabkhas and tidal flats act as episodic emitters influenced by tidal desiccation. NDVI, NDMI, and LST indices from Sentinel-2 and Landsat imagery, combined with in-situ measurements of crust strength, texture, and moisture, indicate that vegetation depletion and independent surface-moisture stress are the strongest predictors of dust emission, with temperature functioning as a secondary amplifier. These findings provide one of the first high-resolution, spatially explicit assessments of dust-source dynamics and their surface controls in Mesopotamia and Kuwait, improving process understanding and supporting targeted monitoring and mitigation strategies across arid environments.
P1.11	A DUSTURBING REALITY: EXAMINING ELEMENTAL DISSOLUTION AND HUMAN HEALTH RISK IN THE ATMOSPHERIC AGING OF DUST AND COAL FLY ASH USING ICP-MS.	Nausheen Sadiq, Madison Smith, Catharina Veldman, Hind A. Al-Abadleh	Iron (Fe) is a key element in atmospheric aging studies of particulate matter [1-2]. Understanding the chemical evolution of dust and coal fly ash is critical for assessing air quality, climate interactions, and human health impacts.2 This study investigates atmospheric aging in dust and coal fly ash samples from the USA, India, and Europe under acidic and organic conditions to simulate surface-catalyzed reactions. To evaluate human exposure, artificial lung fluids were optimized to assess the bioaccessibility of ultrafine particles following realistic exposure times and microwave-assisted extraction. Multi-elemental analysis was performed using an Agilent 7850 ICP-MS. Elements of interest included Al, As, Fe, Cu, Mn, Pb, V, Zn, and Ni at varying pH. Results expand beyond previous Fe-focused work by incorporating multiple elements and focussed time points (6 day and 14 day) to develop kinetic models of dissolution. Variations in fluid composition, temperature and time significantly influenced extraction efficiency and elemental release. This combined approach improves understanding of particle aging, elemental mobility, and potential health risks associated with inhalation exposure. References: [1] Al-Abadleh, H. A. Environ. Sci.: Atmos. 1 (2021) 297–345. [2] Al-Abadleh, H. A. Chem. Commun. 60 (2024) 1840–1855.
P1.12	Intersection of Extreme Heat, Dust, and Social Vulnerability at California’s Salton Sea	Michael Stevens, Wenxin Lu, Corey Gabriel, Jordan Corral, Alexandra K. Heaney	Anthropogenic warming is increasing extreme heat in arid regions, while declining inflows are exposing dust-emitting lakebed at drying saline lakes. These processes converge at California’s Salton Sea, where extreme heat and dust constitute a compound exposure linked to higher rates of respiratory disease. How the co-exposure of extreme heat and dust is distributed across local communities of differing social vulnerability has not yet been characterized. This study investigates the spatiotemporal co-occurrence of extreme heat and dust across 157 census tracts around the Salton Sea from 2005 to 2022 using the PRISM Group daily average temperature data and van Donkelaar et al. dust PM2.5 data, stratified by the CDC Social Vulnerability Index. We found that mean biweekly dust concentration and extreme heat days displayed an r = 0.785 correlation, with about 20% of biweekly periods in southernmost tracts exhibiting compound exposure (daily temp >85%, biweekly dust >75%). The most vulnerable quartile disproportionately bore 26-42% higher compound exposure periods than their population share would predict, rising to 47-66% when filtered by racial and ethnic minority status. Our results suggest that extreme heat and dust are increasingly co-occurring in the region, with the most disadvantaged and southernmost communities, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, bearing the highest exposures. These support targeted dust suppression, heat adaptation, and air-quality warning efforts in the region’s more affected communities.
P1.13	Accessible and Robust Methods for the Quantification of Fugitive Coal Dust Guided by Proximal Residents’ Lived Experience	Nicholas Spada, Bora Jin, Matthew Aubourg, Bonita Salmeron, David Hagan, Russell Dickerson, Tarunika Ramprasad, Kenneth Livi, Justin Chen, Laura Schmidt, Carlos Sanchez-Gonzalez, Gregory Sawtell, Abhirup Datta, Christopher Heaney, Heather Kuiper, Bart Ostro	Fugitive dust is a generic term for primarily inorganic and coarse particulate matter that is transported via aeolian mechanisms. Problems arise when the source material is from an industrial enterprise and the receptor area is inhabited, thus leading to nuisance complaints and potential environmental and/or health impacts. While coal burning emissions have been a pollutant of concern for the entirety of modern history, the study of fugitive coal dust emissions from transport and storage operations is relatively new. Sophisticated methods exist for characterizing dust and uniquely identifying their origin; however, many of these methods are generally unavailable to the communities impacted by fugitive coal dust. In the presented work, a variety of relatively low-cost methods were deployed successfully to identify and quantify the accumulation of fugitive coal dust. Technologies developed include: computer vision for detecting either passing coal trains at a field site or black particles on a white tape strip, a standardized method for identifying and counting coal particles via scanning electron microscope by blinded users, and the novel use of geometric non-negative matrix factorization, previously used in image analysis, for source attribution analysis from ambient sensor readings, meteorological parameters, and trail camera identification of facility operations.
P1.14	Impacts of heterogeneous dust chemistry on tropospheric aerosols and warm clouds in the Community Earth System Model (CESM2)	Danny M. Leung, Simone Tilmes, Kanishk Gohil, Natalie M. Mahowald, Longlei Li, Mingjin Tang, Benjamin Gaubert	We evaluate the roles of heterogeneous dust chemistry in modifying oxidants, aerosols, and liquid clouds. Based on the dust aerosol representation in the Community Earth System Model (CESM2.2), we implement heterogeneous dust uptake reactions for oxidants, reactive nitrogen species, and acids following laboratory measurements. We prescribe dust alkalinity due to calcite using global soil mineralogy maps retrieved from the Earth surface Mineral dust source InvesTigation (EMIT) mission. Heterogeneous reactions subsequently form calcium nitrate and sulfate on dust. Comparisons against aircraft campaigns show that CESM2.2 with dust chemistry substantially improves coarse-mode nitrate and sulfate simulations. Global simulations for 2016–2018 show that dust chemistry reduces accumulation-mode sulfate globally by 7 % while forming coarse-mode sulfate coatings. With declined accumulation-mode hygroscopic aerosols, dust chemistry globally reduces near-surface cloud condensation nuclei (at 0.1 % supersaturation) by 5.2 % and subsequently cloud droplet number concentration by 5.7 %. This leads to reduced aerosol scattering and liquid cloud formation, resulting in a global aerosol shortwave radiative effect of +0.26 W m-2. These results show that heterogeneous dust chemistry can modify warm-cloud properties by redistributing hygroscopic aerosols between different modes, indicating that Earth system models neglecting dust chemistry may systematically misrepresent aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions.
P1.15	Population Exposure and Health Vulnerability to Surface-Observed Dust Events in Washington State	Felicia Dogbey, Karin Ardon-Dryer	Dust events are an important air-quality and public-health concern in Washington State, especially in dry and agricultural regions. This study evaluates how surface-observed dust events translate into population exposure and health vulnerability across the state from 2000 to 2022. Dust events are identified using ASOS/AWOS observations and combined with MERRA-2 surface dust concentrations and GPWv4 population data to estimate population-weighted exposure. CDC PLACES, the Social Vulnerability Index, and American Community Survey data are used to identify communities with greater respiratory and social vulnerability, while EPA PM₁₀ observations provide additional air-quality support. The study examines whether the most intense dust events are also those with the greatest population burden and identifies areas where high exposure overlaps with vulnerable populations. The findings will provide a clearer picture of who is most affected by dust events and can support monitoring, preparedness, and future dust early-warning efforts in Washington State.
P1.16	Agricultural Fallowing Drives Extreme Anthropogenic Dust and Visibility Degradation During the October 2021 Dust Event in California’s Central Valley	Yang Yu, Shu-Hua Chen, Adeyemi A. Adebiyi, Md. Minhazul Kibria, Satyendra Pandey	Anthropogenic dust aerosols from agricultural land affect regional air quality, visibility, and radiation, yet they are often ignored in atmospheric models. Here, we investigate the role of fallow croplands in driving anthropogenic dust emissions during the October 11, 2021, wind-driven dust event over California’s Central Valley (CV). The simulation without fallow croplands fails to reproduce the dust event, whereas the simulation including fallow-induced erodibility produces 90 t of dust emissions, reproducing the observed aerosol optical depth of 0.6-0.8 and PM10 concentrations of 1000-1200 µg m-3. Fallow-land-emitted dust reduces surface net radiation by 30 W m-2, leading to near-surface cooling of 0.2 ℃ and degraded visibility up to 1000 m. These results highlight the important role of agricultural fallowing in regulating regional dust emissions, particularly as climate-driven drought and groundwater sustainability policy are projected to substantially expand fallowed cropland areas across the CV in the coming decades.
P1.17	Soil Salinization Enhances the Mobilization of Legacy Contaminants in Inhalable Dust from Agricultural Soils	Sujith Ravi, Ganesh Khatei, Maxwell Finnegan, Tobia Rinaldo, Robert S. Van Pelt, Sanjay Mohanty, Paolo D'Odorico	Increasing groundwater salinity, declining irrigation-water availability, and climate-driven aridification are accelerating the salinization of irrigated agricultural soils worldwide. Salinization can reduce vegetative cover, increase susceptibility to wind erosion, and alter the geochemical partitioning of legacy contaminants, including heavy metals. To test whether salt-affected soils generate dust enriched in soluble salts and contaminants, we conducted wind-tunnel experiments using saline and sodic agricultural soils spanning a range of textures. We quantified particulate matter emissions and measured soluble salt and trace metal concentrations in emitted dust. Dust from salt-affected soils contained 5–10 times higher soluble salt concentrations than background soils, demonstrating preferential enrichment during wind erosion. Inhalable dust was also enriched in trace metals, with enrichment varying by soil texture. Sodic soils showed greater contaminant enrichment, likely due to preferential mobilization of fine, salt-rich particles, particularly in loamy soils. Upon inhalation, these particles can dissolve in lung fluids, releasing soluble salts and trace metals and providing a potential pathway for human and animal exposure. This concern is particularly relevant to agricultural regions of the southern High Plains of the United States, where increasing irrigation-water salinity from the Ogallala Aquifer is contributing to widespread soil salinization. Historical applications of arsenic acid as a cotton desiccant, along with other agrochemicals, have also left persistent contaminant residues in regional agricultural soils. Our findings identify soil salinization as an emerging driver of dust-borne contaminant exposure and a potential environmental and public health concern.