NASA funded scientists, using an atmospheric computer
model, proved for the first time dust from China’s
TaklaMakan desert traveled more than 12,400 miles (20,000
kilometers) over two weeks and landed on the French Alps.
Chinese dust plumes have reached North America and
Greenland, but had not been reported in Europe.
The findings are highlighted in a paper authored by Francis
E. Grousset of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of
Columbia University (LDEOCU), Palisades, N.Y., and
Universite Bordeaux, France; Aloys Bory and Pierre E.
Biscaye, also of LDEOCU; and Paul Ginoux, University of
Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md. The study appeared in a
recent issue of the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical
Research Letters.
This study looked at dust that traveled from February 25 to
March 7, 1990. “The dust particles traveled around the world
in about two weeks, and along their journey, crossed China,
the North Pacific, North America and the North Atlantic
Ocean,” Ginoux said.
Research conducted in 1994 showed, over the 20 years prior,
a score of red dust events coated the snow cover in the
French Alps and Pyrenees mountains. The red dust topping
these European mountain ranges was sampled and stored in
bags for comparison with dust from other parts of the world.
Scientists analyze the minerals and compositions of certain
distinctive elements (isotopes) of the dust to identify its
origin. Information about the origins and final locations of
dust are important to help determine any effects from heavy
metal, fungal, bacterial and viral distribution that may be
associated with it.
Ginoux and his colleagues used NASA technology and support
in their research. Meteorological information, such as wind
speed and direction, precipitation, air pressure, and
temperature, were put into a computer model. The model
recreated how the atmosphere moved as the dust traveled from
China to the Alps. The meteorological information was from
GSFC’s Earth Observing System Data Assimilation System.
Several computer models, simulating the movement of dust in
the atmosphere, were used to track its journey in this
study. The Global Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation
Transport computer model, largely funded by NASA, uses the
winds, soil moisture, and surface characteristics to
simulate dust generation and transport. The National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Air Resources
Laboratory (ARL), provided models showing the paths of air
masses, as they moved around the world, from the time the
dust was swept into the atmosphere to when it settled on the
Alps.
ARL can project where air pollution will move based on
meteorological conditions. NOAA’s National Weather Service
National Center for Environmental Prediction re-analyzed
global meteorological conditions and plotted the dust
movement to verify the computer models.
This research was funded by France’s National Center for
Scientific Research, NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE),
and the National Science Foundation. NASA’s ESE is dedicated
to understanding the Earth as an integrated system and
applying Earth System Science to improve prediction of
climate, weather and natural hazards using the unique
vantage point of space.
For more information about the research and images on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0427sandalps.html
For information about NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise on the
Internet, visit:
http://www.earth.nasa.gov/
For the Global Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation Transport
computer model, visit:
http://code916.gsfc.nasa.gov/People/Chin/aot.html
For NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory, visit:
www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/
For the National Center for Scientific Research, visit:
http://www.cnrs.fr/
For the National Weather Service’s National Center for
Environmental Prediction, visit:
http://wwwt.ncep.noaa.gov/
