Spaceborne spectroscopy links dust source composition to atmospheric acidity and nitrate

Spaceborne spectroscopy links dust source composition to atmospheric acidity and nitrate | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Spaceborne spectroscopy links dust source composition to atmospheric acidity and nitrate Rubén Soussé Villa, Oriol Jorba, María Gonçalves Ageitos, Jeronimo Escribano, and 11 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8678680/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Mineral dust influences atmospheric chemistry, air quality, and climate, yet its impacts remain uncertain due to limited knowledge of its mineral composition. Here we use novel spaceborne imaging spectroscopy of arid surfaces from NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), together with a global chemistry model constrained by satellite-inverted dust emissions, to quantify how variability in the dust calcite fraction alters aerosol chemistry and optical properties. EMIT-derived, source-resolved calcite distributions substantially improve agreement with airborne observations and reveal large regional contrasts in dust alkalinity. These variations modulate the formation of secondary inorganic aerosols and shift aerosol acidity over a span of -4 to +3 pH units, which profoundly affects the solubility of iron and other trace metals that impact ecosystems upon deposition. The spatial pattern of calcite further controls the intensity and frequency of extreme nitrate formation events, particularly where mineral dust interacts with anthropogenic pollution in East Asia and the Middle East. Resulting changes in single scattering albedo are small and remain secondary to the much larger radiative contrasts arising from variability in iron-oxide absorption. These findings identify dust alkalinity as a dominant, previously underconstrained driver of atmospheric acidity and heterogeneous chemistry, highlighting the need to represent real-world mineral heterogeneity in global models of air quality and climate. Atmospheric Sciences Climate Analysis and Modeling Environmental Chemistry atmospheric chemistry EMIT aerosols particulate nitrate aerosol optical properties secondary inorganic aerosols aerosol acidity dust alkalinity air quality climate Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Supplementary.pdf Supplementary Information: Spaceborne spectroscopy links dust source composition to atmospheric acidity and nitrate Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8678680","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":579331888,"identity":"c393bf67-0855-4212-829d-0b9114633226","order_by":0,"name":"Rubén Soussé Villa","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHiT2xwZStTDOJFkLMy8xWsxn5B58XMBQJ2dw/vjDx7Y76uQZ2Nsf4NUicyMv2XgGw2Fjgxs5xsa5Zw4bNvCcMcCrRUIix0yah+FA4oYbPGzSuW0HEhgkcvA7DKjF/DcPQ13ihvPHn/+2bKtLYJB/jt9hIFuYeRiYEzccSDBjZmxjBtrCQMBhPO+SpXkMDhtLAv0i2Qv0SxtPDgEt7LkHP/NU1MnxAUPsw09giPGzH8fvMAhANpaNCPWjYBSMglEwCggAADQqPxFZhAmsAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3345-4562","institution":"Barcelona Supercomputing Center","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rubén","middleName":"Soussé","lastName":"Villa","suffix":""},{"id":579331889,"identity":"d355e036-fbed-446e-9797-fe1e87f40fbc","order_by":1,"name":"Oriol Jorba","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACxgaGBwxsDAwSDIyPideSANHCbEy8RQkgQoKBTZoo1fzShxsfJDDwyZnPbn5WXfDHjoGf/wB+LZJ9ic0GQIcZy9w5ZnZ7Zlsyg+SMBPxaDM4wtkkAtSTOkEgwu83bcIDB4AYBhyFpSf9WzPPnAIP9eQIOQ9KSY8bMwwa0hYGAwyR7GIF+MWAzlpA5UywN9AuPxA0CWvh52B8++FBxTE5Cun3jZ2CIyfH3E3AY1HnH4EweYtSDQA2xCkfBKBgFo2AkAgCSSzooO7v7wwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5872-0244","institution":"Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Oriol","middleName":"","lastName":"Jorba","suffix":""},{"id":579331890,"identity":"dac7ce04-886f-4456-b214-799c6b0d582c","order_by":2,"name":"María Gonçalves Ageitos","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3857-6403","institution":"Projects and Construction Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"María","middleName":"Gonçalves","lastName":"Ageitos","suffix":""},{"id":579331891,"identity":"e8070e59-8edb-496c-adb6-66482b94aa4e","order_by":3,"name":"Jeronimo Escribano","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9682-7624","institution":"Barcelona Supercomputing Center","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jeronimo","middleName":"","lastName":"Escribano","suffix":""},{"id":579331892,"identity":"4587c0a9-a866-438f-8201-196f06cae8e8","order_by":4,"name":"Vincenzo Obiso","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4272-4405","institution":"Barcelona Supercomputing Center","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Vincenzo","middleName":"","lastName":"Obiso","suffix":""},{"id":579331893,"identity":"6878a0a5-5734-4c41-a08d-90cccc8dc8f7","order_by":5,"name":"Ron L. 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