Understanding the direct radiative effect of dust aerosols on transport pathways using the NASA GEOS-5 AGCM

African dust aerosols are transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean by the easterly trade winds.While in transport, dust aerosols interact with the Earth system in various ways, ranging from influencing the local radiation balance to serving as a nutrient for tropical ecosystems.However, our current understanding of these processes is incomplete and serves as a source of uncertainty in Earth system modeling.Here, we focus on understanding the direct radiative impacts of African dust aerosols on the atmosphere using the NASA GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model that simulates aerosols with an online version of the GOCART model. For this study, we compare a high resolution GEOS-5 climate simulation where aerosols have been radiatively coupled to the atmosphere to one where aerosols are treated as passive tracers for June - September, 2009. Utilizing streamfunction and velocity potentials of the simulated dust mass flux, we isolate differences in dust transport pathways caused by the direct radiative effect of dust by comparing the rotational and divergent components of the dust flow in the horizontal and vertical on various timescales.Additionally, we pay special attention to the influence of dust aerosols on African Easterly Jet (AEJ) position and strength, as well as temperature profiles, cloudiness, and precipitation to gain further insight into the direct radiative effect of dust aerosols on the atmosphere