Europeans Keen to Hear About Effects of Dust Using Data from Africa

 
Published: 8 June 2010
In 2006, the ARM Mobile Facility joined the AMMA project to obtain data for scientists to study the impact that airborne Saharan dust has on incoming solar radiation. This photo shows the sun setting through a dusty atmosphere near Niamey, Niger, where the mobile facility was deployed for one year.

Researcher Xiaohong Liu from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was invited to attend the European Geophysical Union General Assembly 2010 in Vienna, Austria, in early May and discuss his research about the climate effects of dust in West Africa. With his scientific colleagues, he used data from aircraft, satellites, and ground stations involved in the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project in 2006 and the Weather Research Forecast-Chemistry (WRF-CHEM) model to investigate the effects of dust on monsoon circulation and precipitation. They found that Sahara dust changes the surface energy budget due to its radiative forcing and reduces the diurnal cycles of temperature in the Sahara desert and in the West African monsoon (WAM) region. This results in a reduction of diurnal cycles of precipitation in the WAM region through changing the Sahara heat-low.

Liu said the Europeans are very interested in this topic and that ground-based data from the ARM Mobile Facility deployment in Niger are very useful “because it’s such a long dataset—one year.” His talk generated significant attention from the audience and he was inundated with questions at the end of his allotted time. One researcher from the United Kingdom Met Office also followed up with an email to Liu inquiring as to future publications and potential collaboration on the topic of dust and precipitation.

The EGU General Assembly is one of the largest gatherings held each year for earth scientists. This year’s conference drew more than 10,000 attendees from 94 countries, and included 4,431 oral sessions and 9,370 poster sessions. Liu presented his research in the Atmospheric Sciences session, which covered meteorology, boundary layer processes, atmospheric chemistry and aerosols, and interdisciplinary topics. For more information, view their abstract.