Dust Plumes off Western Africa

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	Dust Plumes off Western Africa

amgumen

7-2-2009 11:12 PM

181 views

tags:

africa, dust

2 Comments |

Add a Comment

7-3-2009 3:00 AM

merrie

I wouldn't have thought the sand would be dispersed over
such a vast area.

7-3-2009 11:36 AM

amgumen

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/1a53c39c-bfa7-4dad-a930-f3c00abeb588/1E400B6E-91AF-42EB-B168-C4285A28E926/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39014" href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39014" style="font-size: 11px;">earthobservatory.nasa.gov</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39014"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/earthobservatory.nasa.gov/img/AAC0B961-1527-4D6E-AE38-8843625B3FAE" alt="Dust Plumes off Western Africa" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39014">The extreme daytime heating in the Sahara Desert, especially during the summer, causes instability in the lowest level of the atmosphere. Dust-laden air rises and begins moving westward. As the air travels—a trip that often takes several days—it continues heating. When this Saharan Air Layer moves off the African coast and over the Atlantic Ocean, it is undercut by a cooler, wetter layer of air. Air normally cools with altitude, but the Saharan Air Layer passing over cooler air currents causes a temperature inversion, which suppresses mixing. As a result, Saharan dust often travels across the Atlantic, sometimes <A href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=5696">remaining visible</A> throughout the trip.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=39014"><P>The dust is a mixed blessing in the Western Hemisphere, alternately causing respiratory illness and coral bleaching, and yet <A href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7279">providing soil</A> to Caribbean islands and the Amazon Rainforest.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/1E400B6E-91AF-42EB-B168-C4285A28E926/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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