This Week in Weather: Tracking Dust in the Wind
1
00:00:01,501 --> 00:00:04,637
For five days, starting on February 17, 2021, NOAA satellites monitored a large plume of dust

2
00:00:04,637 --> 00:00:08,308
from the Sahara Desert traveling off the west coast of North Africa.

3
00:00:08,375 --> 00:00:15,348
GOES-16 and NOAA-20 captured the dramatic event as it unfolded.

4
00:00:15,348 --> 00:00:20,086
NASA's EPIC instrument on NOAA's DSCOVR satellite observed the scale of the plume.

5
00:00:20,086 --> 00:00:22,555
The dust seen is carried by the Saharan Air Layer, or SAL.

6
00:00:22,555 --> 00:00:29,295
The SAL can carry dust thousands of miles away from the Sahara.

7
00:00:29,295 --> 00:00:36,102
Saharan dust can suppress tropical storm development during hurricane season.

8
00:00:36,102 --> 00:00:41,107
And carries minerals that can replenish soil several thousand miles away to the Amazon Rainforest.

9
00:00:41,107 --> 00:00:47,213
The SAL is also known to carry dust north, blanketing Europe with a fine layer of dust.

10
00:00:47,213 --> 00:00:49,482
Combining data from multiple channels of GOES-16's imager, the satellite can distinguish 

11
00:00:49,482 --> 00:00:52,452
the dust from clouds to help forecasters identify it more easily.

12
00:00:52,652 --> 00:00:56,790
The pink cloud here is the dust, artificially colored to stand out.

13
00:00:56,790 --> 00:01:00,093
NOAA Satellite and Information Service
www.nesdis.noaa.gov
NASA
CIRA