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| Photo: The image showed that the dust from Africa’s west coast extended almost to the Lesser Antilles in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Credits: NASA Worldview (https://www.nasa.gov) |
1. Dust plume blowing across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa is nothing new but having various nick-names 'Godzilla dust cloud', hurricane killer, ‘mysterious’ dust etc.
2. Large plumes of Saharan dust routinely track into the Atlantic Ocean from late spring into early fall, actually happen often during hurricane season.
3. When the dust plume is large enough and trade winds set up just right, the dust can travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic and into the US.
4. Saharan Air Layer is the mass of extremely dry and dusty air of about 3 km thick that forms over the Sahara desert inhibiting hurricane activity.
5. Refraction and reflection of light out of hazy yellow-brown skies can contribute to stunning sunrises and sunsets.
6. Nutrients from African dust in subtropical and tropical soils may be critical to sustaining vegetation around Caribbean region.
7. Nutrients transported from the Sahara desert have helped to build and nourish coral reefs in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida for millions of years.
8. Contaminants mixture of dust from agricultural practices may be contributing coral seems to suffer or even die off during years of severe dust storms.
9. Dust seems to have a net warming effect on atmosphere due to high deposition of dust too quickly.
10.Sometimes particles can make their way to the surface causing allergies and respiratory issues.
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