What processes remove dust from the atmosphere?
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Any process that increases wind erosion of soil can contribute to dust in the atmospheres.
All such processes generally fall under two main categories:
Decreasing Ground Cover (example: clear cutting, harvesting, digging holes in your yard etc.)
Increasing Soil Disturbance (example: excavations, tillage, pasturing, etc.)
Other non-soil particulate matter in the atmoshere can be caused by any combustion, or burning process (example: most industrial processes, campfires, car engines, etc.)
Dust will naturally settle out of the atmosphere eventually just due to gravity, and rainfall events also help (though for every bit that comes down more goes up).
So the only antropogenic ways to decrease dust in the atmosphere is by preventing it in the first place by counter-acting the processes listed above.
All such processes generally fall under two main categories:
Decreasing Ground Cover (example: clear cutting, harvesting, digging holes in your yard etc.)
Increasing Soil Disturbance (example: excavations, tillage, pasturing, etc.)
Other non-soil particulate matter in the atmoshere can be caused by any combustion, or burning process (example: most industrial processes, campfires, car engines, etc.)
Dust will naturally settle out of the atmosphere eventually just due to gravity, and rainfall events also help (though for every bit that comes down more goes up).
So the only antropogenic ways to decrease dust in the atmosphere is by preventing it in the first place by counter-acting the processes listed above.
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Sources: agriculture, smokestacks, vehicle emissions (combustion by-products, tire wear), blowing things up (war games, building demolition, etc), replacing green areas with concrete jungles.
remove: nothing -- cloud seeding (to cause rain) is a stretch.
remove: nothing -- cloud seeding (to cause rain) is a stretch.