Latest Saharan Air Layer Stories

By Docksai, Rick A layer of dust won't complement your bookshelf, but its presence may be a sign of good news about future hurricanes. The 2008 hurricane season was milder due to the increased presence of dust clouds over the Atlantic Ocean, according to Amato Evan, a researcher for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. "If those dust storms continue to intensify, that would certainly help to quell this period of intense hurricane...

Determined to understand why some storms grow into hurricanes while others fizzle, NASA scientists recently looked deep into thunderstorms off the African coast using satellites and airplanes. During July and August 2006, a team of international scientists, including NASA researchers, journeyed to the west coast of Africa. Their mission was to better understand why some clusters of thunderstorms that drift off the African coast, known as easterly waves, develop into furious hurricanes, while...