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Saharan Dust
Mon Jul 11, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Serendipity — or happy accident — is a not-infrequent companion of scientific discovery. Take the case of Dr. Susan VandenHeever, a Research Scientist at Colorado State University.
We were involved in a NASA-funded fuel program that was being conducted over the Florida Peninsula. And, toward the end of the fuel program, we were taking measurements of clouds and their properties. And it was noticed at that time that there were significant concentrations of Saharan dust in the area. And when we returned back to do our simulations of these storms that developed, we incorporated Saharan dust in our simulations, and found that they had some interesting effects on cloud properties and rainfall rates.
So, what did you find specifically?
We found that Saharan dust eventually results in a reduction of rainfall at the surface associated with these storms. We also found that the anvils associated with these storms are a lot thicker. And, this has impacts on the radiation balance and budget.
Is there anything that could be done in one of these systems to cause more coalescence, like, more violent uplift?
We find that the Saharan dust does result in stronger updrafts as well, actually, because of the fact that when you have more of these particles in the air, the water vapor condenses onto those particles, and releases more energy. And that drives these updrafts. So we find that there are more of these warm updrafts and that the storms are sustained for a longer time period, and that they’re stronger storms.
But ultimately, it is not the scientific discovery that sticks strongest with Dr. VandenHeever:
It’s just kinda cool to think that one continent affects another, we’re all interconnected on a global basis.
The Weather Notebook is funded by Subaru of America. We are a program of The Mount Washington Observatory.
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