The interplay of mineral dust with radiation: analysis of the giant dust intrusion in the Atlantic Ocean on June 2020

In this work, we analyzed the radiative effects caused by a giant Saharan dust intrusion that occurred in June 2020, transporting desert dust from the western Sahara to the Caribbean. Our analysis employs (i) remote sensing data from the VIIRS and SEVIRI sensors aboard the NOAA-20 and Meteosat spacecrafts, respectively, and (ii) a regional simulation using the WRF-Chem model, which integrates the aerosol speciation of GOCART with the New Goddard shortwave and longwave radiation schemes. Our results highlight a significant surface cooling effect, with a maximum reduction of shortwave radiation of about − 50 W m− 2, consistent with previous studies, while the longwave radiation component showed limited sensitivity to aerosol interactions. The analysis confirms the critical role of dust in reducing surface solar radiation through scattering and absorption processes. This study serves as an initial exploration of a more comprehensive work presented in a subsequent full paper, where additional simulations and detailed sensitivity analyses are provided. The results encourage the use of fully coupled aerosol-meteorology models in regional studies of dust-induced climate variability. However, limitations of the current study include the underestimation of aerosol optical depth in the early simulation period due to insufficient spin-up time, which may affect the accuracy of initial results.