The dust from the Sahara desert that consists of sand and other mineral particles has been swept up into air currents to the Atlantic ocean to the Mexican gulf and other surrounding areas. This seems surprising for many of us, but it has been analyzed and studied by many scientists from Texas A&M University, especially Bowen Pan, Tim Logan, and Renyi Zhang in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences.
Although it is staggering 2 to 9 trillion pounds worldwide, which seem daunting, this dust can save some of the regions in the area from terrible problems, including hurricanes and heavy storms as when this dust go to the United States and Mexico region. Because of the phenomenon called inversion of temperature happens, this dust makes unfavorable for a cloud to form, thereby reducing hurricanes to some extent. Moreover, it has the potential to absorb sunlight and minimize sunlight at the surface of the Earth.
"If we have more frequent and severe dust storms, it's likely that we have a cooler sea surface temperature and land surface temperature. The storms have less energy supply from the colder surface therefore will be less severe."
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This dust seems to be a double-edged sword, as it has both positives and negatives. Spreading of sand is always considered as a negative approach; yet this also gives specific benefits for the people living in areas near to Mexican gulf because these dust particles keep the ground surface cooler but the atmosphere heat, thus contributing to reduce severe storms that cause acute problems.
"Our results show significant impacts of dust on the radiative budget, hydrological cycle, and large-scale environments relevant to tropical cyclone activity over the Atlantic," said Zhang.
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However, the predictions of the dust storms are quite challenging, according to the researchers. Therefore, these people are hoping to predict what will be happening in the future.
Fascinating! One more case where something apparently annoying is helping to make our lives safer, maybe in some cases even save our lives by occurring. Hmmm.... food for thought. Divine intervention perhaps?