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The workshop aims to bring together leading international scientists in desert-dust studies, from the marine and terrestrial realms, atmosphere as well as climate modelling. Recent developments in the understanding of the role of desert dust in the climate system shall be discussed. In addition, recommendations for future research towards a better understanding of processes that play an active role in dust emission, transport, deposition, and their role in global climate will be worked out.
As the title of the workshop implies, much focus will be on dust dynamics: from emission-related processes in the various sources of dust, through dispersion at different altitudes in the atmosphere, and deposition on both terrestrial and marine environments and their effects after deposition. The integration of data sets will lead to a quantitative dataset, much like DIRTMAP (Kohfeld & Harrison, 2001) which can consequently be used by the (paleo-) modelling community.
Specific focus in this workshop will be put on what we can learn from aeolian records about the dynamics and variability of large-scale atmospheric circulation during the last glacial. As a regional and strategic target, activities in this workshop will focus on the low-latitude circulation where records of desert loess and dust accumulation in ocean sediments provide a comprehensive database. The workshop will explore strategies to derive quantitative and physically consistent synoptic reconstructions by integration of dust records, climate observations, and model simulations.