“…For example, dust aerosol particles can influence the radiative balance of the Earth system directly by scattering and absorbing solar and terrestrial radiation (Balkanski et al,11728 M. Tang et al: Heterogeneous reactions of mineral dust aerosol as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) to form cloud droplets (Koehler et al, 2009;Kumar et al, 2009;Twohy et al, 2009;Garimella et al, 2014;Tang et al, 2016a) and ice nucleation particles (INPs) to form ice particles (DeMott et al, 2003;Hoose and Moehler, 2012;Murray et al, 2012;Ladino et al, 2013;DeMott et al, 2015). Mineral dust particles are believed to be the dominant ice nucleation particles in the troposphere (Hoose et al, 2010;Creamean et al, 2013;Cziczo et al, 2013), therefore having a large impact on the radiative balance, precipitation, and the hydrological cycle (Rosenfeld et al, 2001;Lohmann and Feichter, 2005;Rosenfeld et al, 2008). In addition, deposition of mineral dust is a major source for several important nutrient elements (e.g., Fe and P) in remote regions such as open-ocean waters and the Amazon Mahowald et al, 2005Mahowald et al, , 2008Boyd and Ellwood, 2010;Nenes et al, 2011;Schulz et al, 2012;Shi et al, 2012), strongly affecting several biogeochemical cycles and the climate system of the Earth Mahowald, 2011;Mahowald et al, 2011;Schulz et al, 2012).…”