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So I had a little time to kill this morning and being naturally curious, I wanted to blog about something I didn’t necessarily know much about, but I found sort of interesting. In studying tropical weather there are many factors analyzed, but one I never really thought about but had heard mentioned before was dust being blown off the deserts in Africa. How strong a role it plays in hindering tropical activity would likely depend on who you ask, but being that I am not a knowledgeable source on the matter, decided to have a chat with Oscar, someone who to me knows a little something about everything. Before I get into what he had to tell me, let’s begin with what I discovered on my own.
1.) Dust can be carried thousands of miles from Africa via the trade winds. In fact dust from African deserts can make it as far as the United States. Depending on weather patterns in Africa, and lack of rain, more dust can be transferred during drought periods. This has been photographed, and looks rather impressive from space. Here’s a look.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sandstorm_big.jpg
2.) Dust holds minerals and nutrients that can feed plankton. Why does this matter, you say? Plankton and other tiny organisms represent the basis of the entire ocean food chain. Humans eat fish, large fish eat small fish, and small fish (even massive whales) feed on plankton. When a large sandstorm occurs, it can play a role in the entire fishing ecosystem. If too much dust settles in the oceans, it can have the same effect as an algae bloom in a river, choking other organisms and spreading disease.
3.) If enough dust winds up in the ocean over a large enough area, it can cool ocean temps just a little bit. While I’m sure it is largely debatable how much cooler it can actually change the temps, it is confirmed that Sea Surface Temperature plays a major role in hurricane development. According to an article written by NASA, "the chilling effect of dust was responsible for one-third of the drop in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures between June 2005 and 2006, possibly contributing to the difference in hurricane activity between the two seasons." Who would have ever thought dust could be so important??
4.) Did you know that a major component of what makes sunsets so beautiful and dramatic has to do with dust? Dust is largely comprised of atmospheric aerosols. They are suspended in the atmosphere and when the sun hits them at sunset or sunrise, depending on how the light strikes them that is how we get such vibrant colors. Different angles represent different angles on the color spectrum. So when you see bright pinks, purples and reds, you’re seeing dust. And if you live in the Caribbean, or coastal southeastern United States, you may in fact be seeing some dust from the Sahara desert
So I spent a bit chatting with Oscar about this and here are his thoughts. Sub-Saharan dust is a secondary factor to dry air. He believes you can’t really look at dust as being a direct contributing factor on helping or hindering storm development, but that it is just likely when you have dry air in place, you often have sub-Saharan dust travelling within the dry air. Dry air inhibits storm development, so some people may think just because you have a lot of dust, you will not have activity. Oscar says people who attempt to speak as authorities on dust are more than likely looking for a topic to sound authoritative on, rather than actually being able to provide definitive evidence that it has an impact on hurricane development. Also, you can most likely see the best images of sub-Saharan dust on water vapor imagery in January and February when Saharan dust storms are active.
Regardless of its role, I think the presence of the dust, and the fact that it can travel such distances is interesting. We will see where say, ten years from now it plays in to actual forecasting. But for now, it’s still interesting to observe, regardless of the importance.
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