NASA observes natty Saharan dust plume over Atlantic ocean

NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite tv for pc noticed a mammoth Saharan dust plume streaming over the North Atlantic Ocean, beginning on June 13. Satellite tv for pc data showed the dust had unfold over 2,000 miles.

At NASA’s Goddard Procedure Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland, Colin Seftor, an atmospheric scientist, created an animation of the dust and aerosols from the plume the utilization of recordsdata from instruments that waft aboard the Suomi NPP satellite tv for pc.

“The animation runs from June 13 to 18 and shows a broad Saharan dust cloud that formed from sturdy atmospheric updrafts that turned into then picked up by the prevailing westward winds and is now being blown across the Atlantic and, at closing over North and South The US,” Seftor acknowledged. “The dust is being detected by the aerosol index measurements from the Suomi-NPP Suomi NPP satellite tv for pc’ s Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) data overlaid over viewed imagery from the Seen Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).”

On June 18, 2020, the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite tv for pc captured a viewed picture of the natty light brown plume of Saharan dust over the North Atlantic Ocean. The picture showed that the dust from Africa’s west trot extended almost to the Lesser Antilles within the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. The picture showed that the dust had unfold over 2,000 miles across the Atlantic.

In general, plenty of of millions of hundreds dust are picked up from the deserts of Africa and blown across the Atlantic Ocean yearly. That dust helps fabricate seashores within the Caribbean and fertilizes soils within the Amazon. It’ll also moreover personal an mark on air quality in North and South The US.

NASA continues to stare the characteristic of African dust in tropical cyclone formation. In 2013, certainly one of many functions of NASA’s HS3 self-discipline mission addressed the controversial characteristic of the unique, dry and dusty Saharan Air Layer in tropical storm formation and intensification and the extent to which deep convection within the interior-core home of storms is a key driver of intensity alternate.

Suomi NPP represents a excessive first step in building the next-technology Earth-looking at satellite tv for pc machine that will obtain data on long-term local climate alternate and temporary climate stipulations. NPP is the implications of a partnership between NASA, the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense.

For higher than five a long time, NASA has broken-down the vantage level of predicament to designate and detect our home planet, toughen lives and safeguard our future. NASA brings collectively technology, science, and irregular global Earth observations to produce societal advantages and give a expend to our nation. Advancing data of our home planet contributes straight to The US’s leadership in predicament and scientific exploration.