We coordinated a ground‐based network that has been in use since 1997 to observe Asian dust during springtime. Huge Asian dust events that occurred in the middle of April 1998 were captured by this network. In this paper we present the organization of the network; a description of the instruments, including the lidar, sky radiometer, and optical particle counter; and the results of the observation, and offer discussions regarding the transport mechanism of Asian dust in east Asia using an on‐line tracer model. We discussed the time series of the surface concentration and the height distribution of the dust. A cutoff cyclone generated during the dust episode was responsible for trapping and sedimentation during the transportation of the Asian dust, particularly in the southern parts of China and Japan. Horizontal dust images derived from NOAA/AVHRR clearly revealed the structure of the vortex. The lidar network observation confirmed the general pattern of dust height distribution in this event; the height of the major dust layer was about 3 km over Japan but was higher (4 to 5 km) in Seoul and Hefei. A thin dust layer in the upper troposphere was also commonly observed in Hefei and Japan. Evidence of the coexistence of dust and cirrus was shown by the polarization lidar. The lidar network observation of Asian dust and satellite remote sensing provide key information for the study of the transport mechanism of Asian dust. Further extension of the lidar network toward the interior of the continent and the Pacific Rim would reveal the greater global mechanism of the transportation.

Understanding the cooling effect of recent volcanoes is of particular interest in the context of the post‐2000 slowing of the rate of global warming. Satellite observations of aerosol optical depth above 15 km have demonstrated that small‐magnitude volcanic eruptions substantially perturb incoming solar radiation. Here we use lidar, Aerosol Robotic Network, and balloon‐borne observations to provide evidence that currently available satellite databases neglect substantial amounts of volcanic aerosol between the tropopause and 15 km at middle to high latitudes and therefore underestimate total radiative forcing resulting from the recent eruptions. Incorporating these estimates into a simple climate model, we determine the global volcanic aerosol forcing since 2000 to be −0.19 ± 0.09 Wm⁻². This translates into an estimated global cooling of 0.05 to 0.12°C. We conclude that recent volcanic events are responsible for more post‐2000 cooling than is implied by satellite databases that neglect volcanic aerosol effects below 15 km.

The eruption of the submarine Hunga volcano in January 2022 was associated with a powerful blast that injected volcanic material to altitudes up to 58 km. From a combination of various types of satellite and ground-based observations supported by transport modeling, we show evidence for an unprecedented increase in the global stratospheric water mass by 13% relative to climatological levels, and a 5-fold increase of stratospheric aerosol load, the highest in the last three decades. Owing to the extreme injection altitude, the volcanic plume circumnavigated the Earth in only 1 week and dispersed nearly pole-to-pole in three months. The unique nature and magnitude of the global stratospheric perturbation by the Hunga eruption ranks it among the most remarkable climatic events in the modern observation era, with a range of potential long-lasting repercussions for stratospheric composition and climate.

The backscattering linear depolarization ratios of major types of tropospheric aerosol particles (Asian and Saharan mineral dust, sea salt, and ammonium sulfate) were measured using a laboratory chamber for interpreting the polarization lidar measurement of tropospheric aerosols. The values obtained from Asian and Saharan mineral particles were $0.39\pm 0.04$ to 0.05 ($\text{mean}\pm \text{standard}$ deviation) for a high number of concentrations in the supermicrometer range and $0.17\pm 0.03$ to $0.14\pm 0.03$ in the submicrometer range. The values were $0.08\pm 0.01$ for sea-salt crystals, $0.04\pm 0.003$ for ammonium sulfate crystals, and $0.01\pm \le 0.001$ for both liquid droplets in the submicrometer range. These values can serve as a reference for estimating aerosol type using lidar measurement.

Climate models and remote sensing retrievals generally assume that dust aerosols are spherical or spheroidal. However, measurements show that dust aerosols deviate substantially from spherical and spheroidal shapes, as ratios of particle length to width (the aspect ratio) and height to width (height‐to‐width ratio) deviate substantially from unity. Here, we quantify dust asphericity by compiling dozens of measurements of aspect ratio and height‐to‐width ratio across the globe. We find that the length is on average 5 times larger than the height and that climate models and remote sensing retrievals underestimate this asphericity by a factor of ~3–5. Compiled measurements further suggest that North African dust becomes more aspherical during transport, whereas Asian dust might become less aspherical. We obtain globally‐averaged shape distributions, from which we find that accounting for dust asphericity increases gravitational settling lifetime by ~20%. This increased lifetime helps explain the underestimation of coarse dust transport by models.

The tropospheric particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio, the depolarization ratio, and the water-vapor mixing ratio were measured by use of a Raman lidar and a polarization lidar during the Asian dust seasons in 2001 and 2002 in Tsukuba, Japan. The apparent (not corrected for multiple-scattering effects) extinction-to-backscatter ratios (S _p) showed a dependence on the relative humidity with respect to ice (RH_ice) obtained from the lidar-derived water-vapor mixing ratio and radiosonde-derived temperature; they were mostly higher than 30 sr in dry air (RH_ice < 50%), whereas they were mostly lower than 30 sr in ice-supersaturated air (RH_ice ≥ 100%), where the apparent extinction coefficients were larger than 0.036 km^-1. Both regions showed mean particle depolarization ratios of 20%–22%. Comparisons with theoretical calculations and the previous experiments suggest that the observed dependence of S _p on RH_ice is attributed to the difference in the predominant particles: nonspherical aerosols (mainly the Asian dust) in dry air and cloud particles in ice-supersaturated air.