Aerosol optical characteristics of Asian dust are studied by combining Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) data, with Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS-5) visible data, collected during a Yellow Sand event occurred on 7 April 2000. Retrieved results were compared with those from solar aureole measurements at Anmyon-Do, Korea. It was shown that the single scattering albedo of Asian dust can be as low as 0.76, much smaller than the generally known values of 0.9 in the Asian dust source region, such as Dunhuang or 0.93 for Saharan dust. This finding suggests that Asian dust can be much absorbing aerosols. The overall atmospheric forcing efficiency (radiation fluxes per unit aerosol optical thickness at 0.5 μm) of Asian dust observed on 7 April 2000, is about 102 Wm⁻² in the atmospheric layer, and −116.9 Wm⁻² at the surface. These results strongly indicate that the regional surface and atmospheric radiation energy budget, can be significantly altered by the presence of Asian dust.