The role of dust mineral composition in atmospheric radiation and pollution in North China: new insights from EMIT and two-way coupled modeling

Abstract. Mineral dust is a major atmospheric aerosol influencing Earth’s energy balance through aerosol-radiation (ARI) and aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI). While homogeneous dust effects have been studied, the impact of mineralogical composition on regional meteorology and air quality remains underexplored, limiting accurate forecasting of dust storm impacts, especially in dust belt regions. In this study, we used a two-way coupled WRF-CHIMERE model with three mineralogical dust atlases (Nickovic et al. (2012) (N2012), Journet et al. (2014) (J2014), and a new dataset, Li et al. (2024) (L2024), from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT)) to evaluate ARI effects during the March 2021 dust storm in North China. Results showed significant spatial variations in radiative forcing due to mineralogical differences. Bulk dust (without considering mineralogy) caused an average shortwave radiative forcing of −5.72 W/m², while mineral-specific forcings increased this by up to +0.10 W/m². Integrating EMIT data reduced PM₁₀ biases by over 15 % in high-concentration regions and improved ozone predictions, with localized changes of −2.46 to +3.52 µg/m³. Hematite’s strong absorption and quartz’s reflective properties were key in altering radiative and air quality outcomes. Compared to scenarios of bulk dust, the consideration of ARI effects of mineralogical compositions can increase PM₁₀ concentration by up to 1189.48 µg/m³ in dust source regions. Future research perspectives on the utilization of high-resolution EMIT data in two-way coupled meteorology and air quality models for investigating the ACI effects of mineralogical dust on cloud microphysics are proposed.