Latest Dust storm Stories

[ Watch the Video ] Researchers analyze dust concentrations and their effects off southern Iceland A University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led study shows a link between large dust storms on Iceland and glacial melting. The dust is both accelerating glacial melting and contributing important nutrients to the surrounding North Atlantic Ocean. The results provide new insights on the role of dust in climate change and high-latitude ocean ecosystems....

Geoscientists predict a dry, dusty future for the American West Haboobs, giant dust storms, walloped Arizona last summer — some close to 2 kilometers high and 160 kilometers wide — knocking out electricity, creating traffic jams and grounding airplanes. Even old-timers say they can't remember anything quite like this year's aerial assaults. Meanwhile Texas is experiencing one of the most extreme droughts in recent history, with almost 90 percent of the state in the most extreme level...

Three scientists have said that the Pentagon is falsely claiming its research shows that airborne dust in Iraq and Afghanistan poses no health risk to U.S. troops. Scientists Philip Hopke, Mark Utell and Anthony Wexler say that military officials then falsely said the review of their research backed their conclusion that the dust in the two war zones is no different from than in California. The scientists were part of a team that reviewed a 2008 study at the request of the Pentagon.  The...

Drier conditions projected to result from climate change in the Southwest will likely reduce perennial vegetation cover and result in increased dust storm activity in the future, according to a new study by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California, Los Angeles. The research team examined climate, vegetation and soil measurements collected over a 20-year period in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in southeastern Utah. Long-term data indicated that...

Snowmelt in the Colorado River basin is occurring earlier, reducing runoff and the amount of crucial water available downstream. A new study shows this is due to increased dust caused by human activities in the region during the past 150 years.The study, led by a NASA scientist and funded by the agency and the National Science Foundation, showed peak spring runoff now comes three weeks earlier than before the region was settled and soils were disturbed. Annual runoff is lower by more than...

The method predicted 2008 dust storm at New Mexico's White Sands Dune Field using temperature images from NASA's Earth-orbiting ASTER instrument, team reports in the Journal of Geophysical Research Earth SurfaceResearchers based at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a method for predicting dust and sandstorms that uses infrared satellite images to determine when conditions are ripe for the destructive phenomena, a technique that could be implemented globally and that the research...

Vast dust storms that dump millions of tons of topsoil from the Australian outback as far afield as Canberra, Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand and New Caledonia, with small amounts even reaching Antarctica, may also be a possible source of disease for people, crops and animals.This phenomenon is being investigated by Professor Patrick De Deckker of the Australian National University, who is this year's winner of the Australian Academy of Science's prestigious Mawson Medal for his...

University of Miami Professor Joe Prospero shared findings at AAASResidents of the southern United States and the Caribbean have seen it many times during the summer months"”a whitish haze in the sky that seems to hang around for days. The resulting thin film of dust on their homes and cars actually is soil from the deserts of Africa, blown across the Atlantic Ocean.Now, there is new evidence that similar dust storms in the arctic, possibly caused by receding glaciers, may be making similar...

A Japanese study using a NASA satellite found that dust clouds being generated by a huge dust storm in China's Taklimakan desert in 2007 made more than one full circle around the globe in just 13 days. Once the cloud reached the Pacific Ocean the second time, it descended down and deposited some of its dust into the sea, revealing how a natural phenomenon can impact the environment far away. "Asian dust is usually deposited near the Yellow Sea, around the Japan area, while Sahara dust...

U.S. scientists say they've made the first direct observations of biological particles in high-altitude clouds. A team of atmospheric chemists led by Kimberly Prather and Kerri Pratt of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego sampled water droplet and ice crystal residues at high speeds while flying through clouds in the skies over Wyoming. An analysis revealed the particles were made up nearly entirely of either dust or biological material, such as...