Academic literature on the topic 'Haze Asia, Southeastern'

Abstract. Haze has been severely affecting the densely populated areas in China recently. While many of the efforts have been devoted to investigating the impact of local anthropogenic emission, limited attention has been paid to the contribution from long-range transport. In this study, we apply simulations from six participating models supplied through the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution phase 2 (HTAP2) exercise to investigate the long-range transport impact of Europe (EUR) and Russia–Belarus–Ukraine (RBU) on the surface air quality in eastern Asia (EAS), with special focus on their contributions during the haze episodes in China. The impact of 20 % anthropogenic emission perturbation from the source region is extrapolated by a factor of 5 to estimate the full impact. We find that the full impacts from EUR and RBU are 0.99 µg m−3 (3.1 %) and 1.32 µg m−3 (4.1 %) during haze episodes, while the annual averaged full impacts are only 0.35 µg m−3 (1.7 %) and 0.53 µg m−3 (2.6 %). By estimating the aerosol response within and above the planetary boundary layer (PBL), we find that long-range transport from EUR within the PBL contributes to 22–38 % of the total column density of aerosol response in EAS. Comparison with the HTAP phase 1 (HTAP1) assessment reveals that from 2000 to 2010, the long-range transport from Europe to eastern Asia has decreased significantly by a factor of 2–10 for surface aerosol mass concentration due to the simultaneous emission reduction in source regions and emission increase in the receptor region. We also find the long-range transport from the Europe and RBU regions increases the number of haze events in China by 0.15 % and 0.11 %, and the North China Plain and southeastern China has 1–3 extra haze days (<3 %). This study is the first investigation into the contribution of long-range transport to haze in China with multi-model experiments.

Abstract. Southern Asia is one of the most heavily populated regions of the world. Biofuel and biomass burning play a disproportionately large role in the emissions of most key pollutant gases and aerosols there, in contrast to much of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, where fossil fuel burning and industrial processes tend to dominate. This results in polluted air masses which are enriched in carbon-containing aerosols, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons. The outflow and long-distance transport of these polluted air masses is characterized by three distinct seasonal circulation patterns: the winter monsoon, the summer monsoon, and the monsoon transition periods. During winter, the near-surface flow is mostly northeasterly, and the regional pollution forms a thick haze layer in the lower troposphere which spreads out over millions of square km between southern Asia and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), located several degrees south of the equator over the Indian Ocean during this period. During summer, the heavy monsoon rains effectively remove soluble gases and aerosols. Less soluble species, on the other hand, are lifted to the upper troposphere in deep convective clouds, and are then transported away from the region by strong upper tropospheric winds, particularly towards northern Africa and the Mediterranean in the tropical easterly jet. Part of the pollution can reach the tropical tropopause layer, the gateway to the stratosphere. During the monsoon transition periods, the flow across the Indian Ocean is primarily zonal with the trade winds, and strong pollution plumes originating from both southeastern Asia and from Africa spread across the central Indian Ocean. This paper provides a review of the current state of knowledge based on the many observational and modeling studies over the last decades that have examined the southern Asian atmospheric pollutant outflow and its large scale effects.

Abstract. Southern Asia, extending from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, is one of the most heavily populated regions of the world. Biofuel and biomass burning play a disproportionately large role in the emissions of most key pollutant gases and aerosols there, in contrast to much of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, where fossil fuel burning and industrial processes tend to dominate. This results in polluted air masses which are enriched in carbon-containing aerosols, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons. The outflow and long-distance transport of these polluted air masses is characterized by three distinct seasonal circulation patterns: the winter monsoon, the summer monsoon, and the monsoon transition periods. During winter, the near-surface flow is mostly northeasterly, and the regional pollution forms a thick haze layer in the lower troposphere which spreads out over millions of square km between southern Asia and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), located several degrees south of the equator over the Indian Ocean during this period. During summer, the heavy monsoon rains effectively remove soluble gases and aerosols. Less soluble species, on the other hand, are lifted to the upper troposphere in deep convective clouds, and are then transported away from the region by strong upper tropospheric winds, particularly towards northern Africa and the Mediterranean in the tropical easterly jet. Part of the pollution can reach the tropical tropopause layer, the gateway to the stratosphere. During the monsoon transition periods, the flow across the Indian Ocean is primarily zonal, and strong pollution plumes originating from both southeastern Asia and from Africa spread across the central Indian Ocean. This paper provides a review of the current state of knowledge based on the many observational and modeling studies over the last decades that have examined the southern Asian atmospheric pollutant outflow and its large scale effects. An outlook is provided as a guideline for future research, pointing out particularly critical issues such as: resolving discrepancies between top down and bottom up emissions estimates; assessing the processing and aging of the pollutant outflow; developing a better understanding of the observed elevated pollutant layers and their relationship to local sea breeze and large scale monsoon circulations; and determining the impacts of the pollutant outflow on the Asian monsoon meteorology and the regional hydrological cycle, in particular the mountain cryospheric reservoirs and the fresh water supply, which in turn directly impact the lives of over a billion inhabitants of southern Asia.

AbstractThis paper presents the background, scientific objectives, experimental design, and preliminary achievements of the Third Tibetan Plateau (TP) Atmospheric Scientific Experiment (TIPEX-III) for 8–10 years. It began in 2013 and has expanded plateau-scale observation networks by adding observation stations in data-scarce areas; executed integrated observation missions for the land surface, planetary boundary layer, cloud–precipitation, and troposphere–stratosphere exchange processes by coordinating ground-based, air-based, and satellite facilities; and achieved noticeable progress in data applications. A new estimation gives a smaller bulk transfer coefficient of surface sensible heat over the TP, which results in a reduction of the possibly overestimated heat intensity found in previous studies. Summer cloud–precipitation microphysical characteristics and cloud radiative effects over the TP are distinguished from those over the downstream plains. Warm rain processes play important roles in the development of cloud and precipitation over the TP. The lower-tropospheric ozone maximum over the northeastern TP is attributed to the regional photochemistry and long-range ozone transports, and the heterogeneous chemical processes of depleting ozone near the tropopause might not be a dominant mechanism for the summer upper-tropospheric–lower-stratospheric ozone valley over the southeastern TP. The TP thermodynamic function not only affects the local atmospheric water maintenance and the downstream precipitation and haze events but also modifies extratropical atmospheric teleconnections like the Asia–Pacific Oscillation, subtropical anticyclones over the North Pacific and Atlantic, and temperature and precipitation over Africa, Asia, and North America. These findings provide new insights into understanding land–atmosphere coupled processes over the TP and their effects, improving model parameterization schemes, and enhancing weather and climate forecast skills.

Abstract. VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite), onboard the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite, has an improved resolution of 750 m with respect to the 1000 m of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer for the channels that allow retrieving cloud microphysical parameters such as cloud drop effective radius (re). VIIRS also has an imager with five channels of double resolution of 375 m, which was not designed for retrieving cloud products. A methodology for a high-resolution retrieval of re and microphysical presentation of the cloud field based on the VIIRS imager was developed and evaluated with respect to MODIS in this study. The tripled microphysical resolution with respect to MODIS allows obtaining new insights for cloud–aerosol interactions, especially at the smallest cloud scales, because the VIIRS imager can resolve the small convective elements that are sub-pixel for MODIS cloud products. Examples are given for new insights into ship tracks in marine stratocumulus, pollution tracks from point and diffused sources in stratocumulus and cumulus clouds over land, deep tropical convection in pristine air mass over ocean and land, tropical clouds that develop in smoke from forest fires and in heavy pollution haze over densely populated regions in southeastern Asia, and for pyro-cumulonimbus clouds. It is found that the VIIRS imager provides more robust physical interpretation and refined information for cloud and aerosol microphysics as compared to MODIS, especially in the initial stage of cloud formation. VIIRS is found to identify significantly more fully cloudy pixels when small boundary layer convective elements are present. This, in turn, allows for a better quantification of cloud–aerosol interactions and impacts on precipitation-forming processes.

Global climatic transitions and Tibetan Plateau uplifts are hypothesized to have profoundly impacted biodiversity in southeastern Asia. To further test the hypotheses related to the impacts of these incidents, we investigated the diversification patterns of the newt genus Tylototriton sensu lato, distributed across the mountain ranges of southeastern Asia. Gene-tree and species-tree analyses of two mitochondrial genes and two nuclear genes revealed five major clades in the genus, and suggested several cryptic species. Dating estimates suggested that the genus originated in the early-to-middle Miocene. Under different species delimitating scenarios, diversification analyses with birth-death likelihood tests indicated that the genus held a higher diversification rate in the late Miocene-to-Pliocene era than that in the Pleistocene. Ancestral area reconstructions indicated that the genus originated from the northern Indochina Peninsula. Accordingly, we hypothesized that the Miocene Climatic Transition triggered the diversification of the genus, and the reinforcement of East Asian monsoons associated with the stepwise uplifts of the Tibetan Plateau promoted the radiation of the genus in southeastern Asia during the Miocene-to-Pliocene period. Quaternary glacial cycles likely had limited effects on speciation events in the genus, but mainly had contributions on their intraspecific differentiations.

Abstract Large river systems are an integral and essential component of Earth dynamics. The development of large river systems in Asia is closely linked to the evolving topography driven by both near-field and far-field effects of the interplay among Indian, Eurasian and Pacific plates. Plate tectonics together with climatic changes during the Cenozoic is therefore believed to have determined the evolution of Asian large rivers, yet the age of the Yangtze, the largest in Asia, has been strongly debated over a century, with estimates ranging from 40–45 Ma to a more recent initiation postdating 750 ka. In this paper, I attempt to review the competing views about the age of the Yangtze, and evaluate the estimated pre-Miocene birth of the river based on the provenance of the fluvial sediments from the lower reaches. I further present new geological evidence from the upper stream in southeastern Tibetan Plateau to show the existence of a possible southward paleo-Jinshajiang during the Paleogene, and exploit when and how it might deviated eastward to give birth to the modern Yangtze River. I propose that the present Yangtze River system formed in response to the continental-scale gradient driven by uplifting Tibetan Plateau and regional extension throughout eastern China, synchronous with surface uplift in southeastern Tibet and strengthening of Asian summer monsoon.

AbstractKnown as one of the largest semiarid to arid regions in the world, central Asia and its economy and ecosystem are highly sensitivity to the changes in precipitation. The observed precipitation and related hydrographic characteristics have exhibited robust decadal variations in the past decades, but the reason remains unknown. Using the pacemaker experiments of the Community Earth System Model (CESM1.2), we find that the tropical Pacific decadal variability (TPDV) and the Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV) are the main drivers of the interdecadal variations in central Asian precipitation during 1955–2004. Both the decadal-scale warming of the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic are favorable for wetter conditions over central Asia. The positive TPDV is accompanied with high sea level pressure (SLP) over the Indo–western Pacific warm pool. Southwesterly winds along the northwestern flank of the high SLP can transport more moisture to southeastern central Asia. The warm AMV can excite a circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) pattern. A trough node of the CGT to the west of central Asia drives an anomalous ascending motion and increased precipitation over this region. The results based on the CESM model are further demonstrated by the pacemaker experiments of MRI-ESM2-0. Based on the observational TPDV and AMV indices, we reasonably reconstruct the historical precipitation over central Asia. Our results provide hints for the decadal prediction of precipitation over central Asia.

Since 10 years, Chikungunya – a virus spread through Aedes spp mosquitoes – has reemerged in Africa, southern and southeastern Asia, and the Indian Ocean Islands.1 In SouthEast Asia, epidemics have been documented in India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Pakistan

Abstract. The impact of different boundary layer source regions in Asia on the chemical composition of the Asian monsoon anticyclone, considering its intraseasonal variability in 2012, is analysed by simulations of the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) using artificial emission tracers. The horizontal distribution of simulated CO, O3, and artificial emission tracers for India/China are in good agreement with patterns found in satellite measurements of O3 and CO by the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). Using in addition, correlations of artificial emission tracers with potential vorticity demonstrates that the emission tracer for India/China is a very good proxy for spatial distribution of trace gases within the Asian monsoon anticyclone. The Asian monsoon anticyclone constitutes a horizontal transport barrier for emission tracers and is highly variable in location and shape. From the end of June to early August, a northward movement of the anticyclone and, during September, a strong broadening of the spatial distribution of the emission tracer for India/China towards the tropics are found. In addition to the change of the location of the anticyclone, the contribution of different boundary source regions to the composition of the Asian monsoon anticyclone in the upper troposphere strongly depends on its intraseasonal variability and is therefore more complex than hitherto believed. The largest contributions to the composition of the air mass in the anticyclone are found from northern India and Southeast Asia at a potential temperature of 380 K. In the early (mid-June to mid-July) and late (September) period of the 2012 monsoon season, contributions of emissions from Southeast Asia are highest; in the intervening period (early August), emissions from northern India have the largest impact. Our findings show that the temporal variation of the contribution of different convective regions is imprinted in the chemical composition of the Asian monsoon anticyclone. Air masses originating in Southeast Asia are found both within and outside of the Asian monsoon anticyclone because these air masses experience, in addition to transport within the anticyclone, upward transport at the southeastern flank of the anticyclone and in the tropics. Subsequently, isentropic poleward transport of these air masses occurs at around 380 K with the result that the extratropical lowermost stratosphere in the Northern Hemisphere is flooded by the end of September with air masses originating in Southeast Asia. Even after the breakup of the anticyclonic circulation (around the end of September), significant contributions of air masses originating in India/China are still found in the upper troposphere over Asia. Our results demonstrate that emissions from India, China, and Southeast Asia have a significant impact on the chemical composition of the lowermost stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere, in particular at the end of the monsoon season in September/October 2012.

The modeling of climate over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) started with the introduction of Global Climate Models (GCMs) in the 1950s. Since then, GCMs have been developed to simulate atmospheric dynamics and eventually the climate system. As the highest and widest international plateau, the strong orographic forcing caused by the TP and its impact on general circulation rather than regional climate was initially the focus. Later, with growing awareness of the incapability of GCMs to depict regional or local-scale atmospheric processes over the heterogeneous ground, coupled with the importance of this information for local decision-making, regional climate models (RCMs) were established in the 1970s. Dynamic and thermodynamic influences of the TP on the East and South Asia summer monsoon have since been widely investigated by model. Besides the heterogeneity in topography, impacts of land cover heterogeneity and change on regional climate were widely modeled through sensitivity experiments.In recent decades, the TP has experienced a greater warming than the global average and those for similar latitudes. GCMs project a global pattern where the wet gets wetter and the dry gets drier. The climate regime over the TP covers the extreme arid regions from the northwest to the semi-humid region in the southeast. The increased warming over the TP compared to the global average raises a number of questions. What are the regional dryness/wetness changes over the TP? What is the mechanism of the responses of regional changes to global warming? To answer these questions, several dynamical downscaling models (DDMs) using RCMs focusing on the TP have recently been conducted and high-resolution data sets generated. All DDM studies demonstrated that this process-based approach, despite its limitations, can improve understandings of the processes that lead to precipitation on the TP. Observation and global land data assimilation systems both present more wetting in the northwestern arid/semi-arid regions than the southeastern humid/semi-humid regions. The DDM was found to better capture the observed elevation dependent warming over the TP. In addition, the long-term high-resolution climate simulation was found to better capture the spatial pattern of precipitation and P-E (precipitation minus evapotranspiration) changes than the best available global reanalysis. This facilitates new and substantial findings regarding the role of dynamical, thermodynamics, and transient eddies in P-E changes reflected in observed changes in major river basins fed by runoff from the TP. The DDM was found to add value regarding snowfall retrieval, precipitation frequency, and orographic precipitation.Although these advantages in the DDM over the TP are evidenced, there are unavoidable facts to be aware of. Firstly, there are still many discrepancies that exist in the up-to-date models. Any uncertainty in the model’s physics or in the land information from remote sensing and the forcing could result in uncertainties in simulation results. Secondly, the question remains of what is the appropriate resolution for resolving the TP’s heterogeneity. Thirdly, it is a challenge to include human activities in the climate models, although this is deemed necessary for future earth science. All-embracing further efforts are expected to improve regional climate models over the TP.

AbstractThe archaeological cultures from Neolithic Age to early Iron Age in the Southeast of China including south of Jiangsu (江苏) and Anhui (安徽), Zhejiang (浙江), Jiangxi (江西), southeast of Hunan (湖南), Fujian (福建), Guangdong (广东), Guangxi (广西), Hainan (海南), Taiwan (台湾) and the adjacent coast of Vietnam, compose one of the special segment in the unity of “Assimilation and Integration of Pluralistic Cultures” in prehistoric and early history of China. These regional cultures with the continuingly temporal sequence have developed for thousands of years from early Neolithic Age to early Iron Age, “Relying on Huaxia Nationality of Central Nation and Facing Maritime Barbarians of Austronesian”, are just the material cultural heritages of the indigenous Miao, Man, Bai Yue and their ancestors in the “Southeastern Direction” of the ancient Chinese history.

AbstractThe archaeological cultures from Neolithic Age to early Iron Age in the Southeast of China including south of Jiangsu (江苏) and Anhui (安徽), Zhejiang (浙江), Jiangxi (江西), southeast of Hunan (湖南), Fujian (福建), Guangdong (广东), Guangxi (广西), Hainan (海南), Taiwan (台湾) and the adjacent coast of Vietnam, compose one of the special segment in the unity of “Assimilation and Integration of Pluralistic Cultures” in prehistoric and early history of China. These regional cultures with the continuingly temporal sequence have developed for thousands of years from early Neolithic Age to early Iron Age, “Relying on Huaxia Nationality of Central Nation and Facing Maritime Barbarians of Austronesian”, are just the material cultural heritages of the indigenous Miao, Man, Bai Yue and their ancestors in the “Southeastern Direction” of the ancient Chinese history.

Higher education institutions are the strategic assets that enable a country to a hold strong competitive advantage in the modern technological era. Higher education system has dramatically changed due to the paradigm shifts brought by the twenty first century trends. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has also changed the higher education system around the world. Due to such shifts, new performance standards have been created, and the higher education institutions across the globe including Southeast Asian region are facing different challenges. To explore these challenges a non-systematic narrative review of existing literature was carried out, which helped in examining the role of higher education in the modern era. Moreover, it also helped in presenting an overview of higher education system in the Southeast Asian countries by discussing the challenges experienced by it. Finally, this chapter has explored the options available for supporting the continual development of the higher education in the Southeastern Asia.

Oxidic soils are deeply weathered, fine-textured, oxide-rich soils in the tropics. These soils are the second most abundant soils in the tropics. Geographically, oxidic soils are found in Latin America (Brazil, Central America), East and Central Africa (Kenya, Congo, and Cameroon), the Caribbean Basin, and the Pacific Islands. In southeastern Asia, oxidic soils are found in isolated areas of Indonesia, the Philippines, and northern Australia, usually on the volcanic and limestone-dominated geomorphic surfaces. Oxidic soils are oxide-rich, low bulk density Oxisols, Alfisols, and Ultisols according to the Soil Taxonomy classification. In other soil classification schemes, most oxidic soils are classified under Sols Ferallitiques according to the French system, and Ferralsols and Nitosols under the FAO/UNESCO system. Oxidic soils are differentiated into high-base-status and low-base-status soils on the basis of the 70% base saturation limit calculated from effective CEC. The high-base-status oxidic soils generally are enriched with Ca-saturated organic matter in the surface layer and are among the more productive upland soils in the tropics. The low-base-status oxidic soils are acidic, have a low effective CEC, and the degree of exchangeable Al saturation often exceeds 60% in the subsoil horizons. Because of their excellent soil physical properties, oxidic soils are more resistant to soil erosion and therefore better suited to large-scale mechanized agriculture than kaolinitic soils. Although the dominant clay mineral is kaolinite, the presence of moderate amounts of crystalline and amorphous Fe and Al oxides and hydrous oxides (around 5% Fe2O3 or higher) with a high specific surface area (100 m2/g or larger) gives rise to many unique chemical and physical properties, such as a variable surface charge, the formation of microaggregates, low bulk density (0.8-1.2 Mg/ m3), stable soil structure, and high permeability. Most oxidic soils are red or dark red due to the presence of clay-size hematite (Fe2O3) in the soil. The yellowish oxidic soils contain primarily goethite (FeOOH) in the clay fraction and occur in the wetter geomorphic positions of a deeply weathered landscape. Extensive areas of clayey, yellowish oxidic soils are found in the Amazon Basin. Gibbsite (A1OOH) is the major crystalline Al oxide.

The projects sponsored by the Gülen-inspired movement are numerous, international and costly in terms of human and financial capital. Critics of the movement often question the fi- nancing of these initiatives – with some convinced of collusion with Middle Eastern govern- ments, others (within Turkey) suspicious that Western governments are financially backing the projects. Aware of these criticisms, in a recent comment to a group of visiting follow- ers, Fethullah Gülen indicated greater financial transparency must become a priority for the movement. This paper addresses the financing of Gülen-inspired projects, based on interviews with busi- ness leaders in Turkey, as well as local businessmen throughout Turkey who constitute the financial infrastructure of the movement. In addition, the paper presents data from one local Gülen movement organisation in Houston, Texas, that collects thousands of dollars annually from local members, mostly students on small educational stipends. The paper is framed sociologically in terms of organisational theories of commitment. Beginning with Kanter (1972;1977) and including subsequent major figures in the organi- sational field (e.g. Reichers 1985; Meyer and Allen 1991; Hall 2002; Scott 2003), scholars have demonstrated a positive correlation between sacrifices asked of members and degree of commitment to the goals of the organisation. Using this perspective, the paper argues that the financial contributions made by members in the Gülen movement both demonstrate commit- ment to the ideals espoused by Fethullah Gülen and generate commitment to the movement. The paper presents empirical evidence, based on interviews with financial supporters both in Turkey and the U.S., of how financial resources are generated, the initiatives being supported and the impact of financial giving on the commitment of supporters. The Gülen movement is a civil society movement that arose in the late 1960s in Turkey, initially composed of a loose network of individuals who were inspired by M. Fethullah Gülen. As a state-approved mosque preacher, Gülen delivered sermons in cities throughout Turkey, beginning with a handful of listeners and gradually drawing tens of thousands of people. His sermons focused not only on religious texts but included a broad array of such topics as religion and science, social justice, human rights, moral values and the importance of education. Gülen repeatedly stressed the importance of educating the youth of society by establishing first-rate schools that expose students to the latest scientific knowledge in an at- mosphere of moral values. The projects sponsored by Gülen-inspired followers today number in the thousands, span international borders and are costly in terms of human and financial capital (Woodhall 2005). These initiatives include over 2000 schools and seven universities in more than ninety countries in five continents (Yavuz and Esposito 2003; Baskan 2004; Tekalan 2005), two modern hospitals, the Zaman newspaper (now in both a Turkish and English edition), a television channel (Samanyolu), a radio channel (Burc FM), CHA (a ma- jor Turkish news agency), Aksiyon (a leading weekly news magazine), national and interna- tional Gülen conferences, Ramadan interfaith dinners, interfaith dialog trips to Turkey from countries around the globe and the many programs sponsored by the Journalists and Writers Foundation. In addition, the Isik insurance company and Bank Asya, an Islamic bank, are af- filiated with the Gülen community. In 1993 the community also established the Business Life Cooperation Association (ISHAD) which has 470 members (Baskan 2004). Questions regarding the financing of these numerous and expensive projects are periodically raised by both critics of the Gülen Movement and newcomers to the movement who are invited to Gülen related events. Because of the large amounts of money involved in these projects, on occasion people have raised the possibility of a collusion between the movement and various governments, especially Saudi Arabia and/or Iran, and including the Turkish government. There has even been suspicion that the American CIA may be a financial partner behind the projects (Kalyoncu, forthcoming). Aware of these criticisms, in a recent comment to a group of visiting followers, Fethullah Gülen indicated that a priority must be proactive financial transparency. In this paper, we address directly the issue of the financing of Gülen inspired projects based on the little that is available in published sources, including an interview with Gülen himself, and supplementing that information with interviews with business leaders in Turkey who constitute the infrastructure of the movement. In addition, we present data from one local Gülen organization in Houston, Texas, that regularly collects over half a million dollars from local members, mostly students on small educational stipends. Our analysis is framed socio- logically in terms of organizational theories of commitment. We argue that the contributions made by rank and file movement members, as well as by wealthier sponsors, both demon- strate commitment to the ideals of the movement and simultaneously generate commitment to the movement. An analysis of Gülen-inspired financial contributions must include the ideological and reli- gious motivations inherent in the concepts of hizmet, himmet, sohbet, istisare, and mutevelli. For an understanding of these concepts, we are most indebted to the superb work of Mehmet Kalyoncu whose study of the Gülen movement in Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey, was very helpful both in understanding these ideas and in demonstrating their applicability to the financing of local projects in the city.

Dust storms can be hazardous for aviation, military activities, and respiratory health and can occur on a wide variety of spatiotemporal scales with little to no warning. To properly forecast these storms, a comprehensive understanding of the meteorological dynamics that control their evolution is a prerequisite. To that end, we chose a major dust storm that occurred in Southwest Asia during July–August 2018 and conducted an observation-based analysis of the meteorological conditions that influenced the storm’s evolution. We found that the main impetus behind the dust storm was a large-scale meteorological system (i.e., a cyclone) that affected Southwest Asia. It seems that cascading effects from this system produced a smaller, near-surface warm anomaly in Mesopotamia that may have triggered the dust storm, guided its trajectory over the Arabian Peninsula, and potentially catalyzed the development of a small low-pressure system over the southeastern end of the peninsula. This low-pressure system may have contributed to some convective activity over the same region. This type of analysis may provide important information about large-scale meteorological forcings for not only this particular dust storm but also for future dust storms in Southwest Asia and other regions of the world.