March 17, 2022 - Dust over Europe

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Dust over Europe
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On March 15, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of a
blanket of dust so thick that it obscured most of Spain, Portugal, and
France from view. That morning, a massive plume of Saharan dust was
blown out of North Africa and across the Mediterranean into Western
Europe. The dust turned skies orange, blanketed cities, impaired air
quality, and stained ski slopes.

The plume was driven by an atmospheric river arising from Storm Celia,
which brought strong winds, rain, and snow to the Canary Islands.
Atmospheric rivers, normally associated with extreme moisture, can also
carry dust. A study published in March 2022 in the journal ‘Atmospheric
Research’ identified for the first time the occurrence of dust-laden
atmospheric rivers flowing towards Europe via a new pathway:
originating in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and flowing across the Sahara
Desert. While not extremely common, when such atmospheric rivers pass
over northwestern Africa, they often lead to extreme dust events over
Europe.

Over the past four decades, 78 percent of atmospheric rivers over
northwestern Africa have led to extreme dust events over Europe,
according to research by Guan and colleagues. Such “aerosol atmospheric
rivers”—a term recently introduced in a NASA-led study that refers to
narrow, elongated regions of extreme aerosol mass transport—can play an
important role in climate and air quality around the world.

Each year, more than 100 million tons of dust blow out of North Africa,
lofted from the Sahara Desert by strong seasonal winds. At least a few
times a year, strong and persistent winds from the south drive Saharan
dust north toward Europe. At other times, they may cross the Atlantic
Ocean to reach South or North America. The dust plays a major role in
Earth’s climate and biological systems, absorbing and reflecting solar
energy and fertilizing ocean ecosystems with iron and other minerals
that plants and phytoplankton need to grow. But such massive dust
events can decrease the amount of sunlight reaching the surface through
reflection and absorption, affect cloud formation, degrade air quality,
and have negative health effects.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/15/2022
Resolutions: 1km (1.1 MB), 500m (4.3 MB),
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-03-17

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