Scientists are mapping dust storms to better understand them because each type of dust has its own light-reflecting signature that can potentially help us prepare for our future.
Mapping Dust Storms For The Future
Sand and dust storms can occur anywhere in the world. These tiny dust particles can be transported by winds thousands of kilometers away, endangering human health and way of life, CNN reported.
According to the UN, land degradation, drought, and climate change are to blame for a sharp rise in dust storms in recent years.
Natalie Mahowald, a climate scientist, believes that by learning more about dust storms, we can make future plans. Mahowald is a professor of engineering at Cornell University in the US and has spent the past 20 years tracking dust around the world. Currently, she is collaborating with NASA on a new device called EMIT.
What Is EMIT?
EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) is the world's first space-borne image spectrometer is assisting in the mapping of dust hues. Scientists can determine how different minerals heat or cool the planet using the data in their climate models.
Every kind of dust has a distinctive way of reflecting light; for instance, white dust reflects heat from the sun, whereas "red and the black dust absorbs it," according to the author.
Mahowald added that EMIT will "revolutionize what we can do." We can utilize that information to learn more about the effects of desert dust.
EMIT was launched in July 2022 and is currently connected to the International Space Station (ISS). It maps the mineral composition of the planet's surface by collecting data on spectra, or the various light wavelengths given off by various colors.
Researchers can use this information to identify the mineral and chemical makeup of substances on the surface. The device will give scientists billions of data points to use in climate model projections by scanning 50-mile-wide strips in a couple of seconds, significantly extending the present data collection, which is derived from just 5,000 sample locations, according to Mahowald.
The majority of the data is derived from agricultural land, where precise soil data proved useful for farming and business purposes. EMIT's extensive informational resources.
According to Mahowald, the topic of dust and its effect on climate has been largely ignored up until this point. The abundance of information offered by EMIT, which includes data from the world's most arid places, will enable scientists to understand much more about dust and its impact on climate.
What Are Sand And Dust Storms?
Sand and Dust storms are common meteorological hazards in arid and semi-arid regions. They occur when strong winds lift large amounts of sand and dust from bare, dry soils into the atmosphere.
According to World Meteorological Organization, 40% of aerosols in the troposphere are dust particles from wind erosion.
The main source of mineral dust is the arid regions of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia and China.
Aerosols, particularly mineral dust, can affect the global and regional climate. Airborne dust works like the greenhouse effect - it absorbs and scatters solar radiation entering Earth's atmosphere and reduces the amount reaching the surface. It also absorbs long-wave radiation bouncing back up from the surface, re-emitting them in all directions.
Airborne dust presents serious risks to human health. The size of dust particles is a key determinant of the potential hazard to our health.
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