Interactive comment on “Study of Arabian Red Sea coastal soils as potential mineral dust sources” by P. Jish Prakash et al

Interactive comment on “Study of Arabian Red Sea coastal soils as potential mineral dust sources” by P. Jish Prakash et al. Anonymous Referee #1 Received and published: 25 April 2016 The study presents results from measurements of the mineral composition and other properties of soil, based on 13 samples at four locations in the Saudi Arabian coastal plane adjacent to the Red Sea. The region has been understudied so far, although it is an important source of wind blown dust with at least regional impact on human health, climate, and ecosystems. There is a great need for measurements of this kind, not just in the region studied here, but generally, to better understand the impact of dust aerosols as well as to have more data available, which can be used to evaluate and constrain dust aerosols in modeling studies. Thus, I very welcome this study with the new data. The manuscript is generally well writC1