Lidar network for the global observation of Asian-dust (KOSA) transportation

Asian dust (KOSA) is a well known phenomenon in East Asia. KOSA sometimes transports beyond the Pacific and reaches North America as the case in the April of 1998. It is quite impressive that the satellite sensors, SeaWiFS and TOMS, showed daily images of how the Asian dust transports from dust storms which occurred in China and Mongolia to North America. A number of ground-based lidars are already distributed in the East Asia region. We expect that the horizontally distributed lidars that are able to obtain the vertical distribution of aerosols should give advanced information on the transport mechanism of tropospheric aerosols, especially when we combine the satellite remote sensing.