convener:Ishizuka Masahide(Kagawa University), Yasunori Kurosaki(Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University), Thomas Sekiyama(Meteorological Research Institute), Kana Nagashima(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Research and Development Center for Global Change)

Mineral dust is generated from the ground surface by strong winds, and it transports long distance over the earth. In the process, cloud formation and absorption and scattering of solar radiation cause weather and climate changes. Also, when deposited in the ocean, feeding nutrients to phytoplankton, promoting photosynthesis, and when deposited on snow and ice causes albedo change. This is known as the yellow dust (Asian dust) phenomenon in Asia region including Japan. In order to understand this, integration in a wide range of academic areas is necessary.
In the emission process, the amount of dust changes greatly depending on the surface conditions in dryland area, and in order to know the effect, it is necessary to deal with broad areas such as soil, topography, vegetation, precipitation, desertification and soil deterioration. In the transport process, we deal with areas such as weather, atmospheric aerosol, radiation. In the deposition process, we deal with areas such as ocean, snow ice, health to people and livestock. Drying and changes in vegetation also have social scientific aspects such as national policies, management of livestock, and population increase. In addition, dust and sand dunes are common phenomena not only in the Earth but also in other planets such as Mars and Saturn. In this way, it is impossible to understand the dust phenomenon only from one field, it is important for researchers in many areas to discuss and share information through this session, and advance exchange of researchers.