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Airborne mineral dust significantly influences Earth’s climate through perturbing Earth’s radiation budget, modulating cloud formation and microphysical properties, and fertilizing the biosphere. Recent field campaigns have revealed substantially more coarse-mode dust particles in the atmosphere than previously recognized, yet current satellite retrievals and climate models inadequately represent these particles. This study presents a novel retrieval algorithm for dust aerosol optical depth at 10 μm (AOD10μm) and effective diameter (Deff) using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) thermal infrared (TIR) observations over global land and ocean. Building upon the previous synergistic approach for MODIS and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), we improve the retrieval from CALIOP-track-limited coverage to full-swath MODIS observations at 10-km resolution over both ocean and land surfaces. The retrieval improvements include: (1) application of climatological CALIOP dust vertical profiles (2007–2017) to constrain dust vertical distribution for off-CALIOP-track pixels; (2) the improved optimization method to effectively handle nonmonotonic cost functions arising from temperature inversions within the Saharan Air Layer; and (3) extension to land surfaces through incorporation of MODIS-retrieved surface emissivity and ERA5 reanalysis data. Validation against coarse-mode AOD from global AERONET (N = 4703) and MAN (N = 1673) observations yields R = 0.82 and 0.85 for AOD10μm, with retrieval uncertainty characterized as ε = 15 % × AOD + 0.04. The retrieved Deff demonstrates excellent agreement with in-situ measurements collected from 24 field campaigns around the globe (R = 0.84, MBE = 0.23 μm, RMSE = 0.73 μm), capturing the particle size variation from near-source regions (Deff = 7–8 μm) to long-range transport (Deff = 3–5 μm). Case studies of dust events over the Namibian coast and trans-Atlantic corridor demonstrate the retrieval’s capability to resolve episodic dust properties and size-dependent deposition during transport. This improved retrieval addresses the critical observational gap for coarse and super-coarse dust particles (D > 5 μm), providing essential constraints for dust life cycle studies and climate model evaluation. 

Abstract Super‐coarse dust particles (diameters >10 μm) are evidenced to be more abundant in the atmosphere than model estimates and contribute significantly to the dust climate impacts. Since super‐coarse dust accounts for less dust extinction in the visible‐to‐near‐infrared (VIS‐NIR) than in the thermal infrared (TIR) spectral regime, they are suspected to be underestimated by remote sensing instruments operates only in VIS‐NIR, including Aerosol Robotic Networks (AERONET), a widely used data set for dust model validation. In this study, we perform a radiative closure assessment using the AERONET‐retrieved size distribution in comparison with the collocated Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) TIR observations with comprehensive uncertainty analysis. The consistently warm bias in the comparisons suggests a potential underestimation of super‐coarse dust in the AERONET retrievals due to the limited VIS‐NIR sensitivity. An extra super‐coarse mode included in the AERONET‐retrieved size distribution helps improve the TIR closure without deteriorating the retrieval accuracy in the VIS‐NIR. 

Abstract. The complex refractive index (CRI; n−ik) and the single scattering albedo (SSA) are key parameters driving the aerosol direct radiative effect. Their spatial, temporal, and spectral variabilities in anthropogenic–biogenic mixed environments are poorly understood. In this study, we retrieve the spectral CRI and SSA (370–950 nm wavelength range) from in situ surface optical measurements and the number size distribution of submicron aerosols at three sites in the greater Paris area, representative of the urban city, as well as its peri-urban and forested rural environments. Measurements were taken as part of the ACROSS (Atmospheric Chemistry of the Suburban Forest) campaign in June–July 2022 under diversified conditions: (1) two heatwaves leading to high aerosol levels, (2) an intermediate period with low aerosol concentrations, and (3) an episode of long-range-transported fire emissions. The retrieved CRI and SSA exhibit an urban-to-rural gradient, whose intensity is modulated by the weather conditions. A full campaign average CRI of 1.41−0.037i (urban), 1.52−0.038i (peri-urban), and 1.50−0.025i (rural) is retrieved. The imaginary part of the CRI (k) increases and the SSA decreases at the peri-urban and forest sites when exposed to the influence of the Paris urban plume. Values of k > 0.1 and SSA < 0.6 at 520 nm are related to a black carbon mass fraction larger than 10 %. Organic aerosols are found to contribute to more than 50 % of the aerosol mass and up to 10 % (urban), 17 % (peri-urban), and 22 % (forest) of the aerosol absorption coefficient at 370 nm. A k value of 0.022 (370 nm) was measured at the urban site for the long-range-transported fire episode.