Saharan dust transport over Gran Canaria islands & Cabo Verde

On 2019.02.05, a remarkable dust outbreak issued from the Western Sahara coast spread over Gran Canaria islands. This thick plume, with heavy load of particles, and larger than 1.000 km width, was well observed via a series of satellite images:

in the Red-Green-Blue (RGB) composite image of the OLCI Sentinel-3 sensor, also via the UV absorbing aerosol index (UVAI) retrieved from TROPOMI Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P). Note that both missions are part of the European Union (EU) Copernicus programme.

RGB Composite image from OLCI Sentinel-3 of the Saharan dust outbreak of 2019.02.05. Credit SentinelHub.. Source: https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/eo-browser

Aerosol Index UVAI retried from TROPOMI Sentinel-5 Precursor over the Saharan dust outbreak of 2019.02.05. Credit SentinelHub.. Source: https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/eo-browser

Similarly, as posted on Twitter by the EUMETSAT Atmospheric Composition Satellite Application Facility (AC SAF), via the composite image from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) SEVIRI & the UVAI from the GOME2 instrument on-board MetOp. Both missions are procured by the EUMETSAT agency.

Screenshot 2019-04-21 at 10.39.08 — Tweet from the AC SAF showing images from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) SEVIRI (left) and GOME2 Metop UVAI index (right) of the Saharan dust outbreak of 2019.02.05. Source: https://twitter.com/Atmospheric_SAF/status/1092847004844208128

Several days later, on 2019.03.02, another Saharan dust was transported over Cabo Verde. Similarly, a very large and thick plume was captured in the images from the NASA SUOMI VIIRS sensor, and measured by the aerosol index UVAI from Tropomi.

RGB composite image from SUOMI VIIRS of the Saharan dust transport of 2019.03.02. Credit: NASA EODIS Worldview Source: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov

Aerosol Index UVAI retried from TROPOMI Sentinel-5 Precursor over the Saharan dust transport of 2019.03.02. Credit SentinelHub.. Source: https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/eo-browser

Such aerosol dust events regularly occur in these areas. I always find the related satellite images not only impressive but also informative regarding their spatial scales, intensity and transport.

More information?

The EU Copernicus programme here
Overview of the NASA & NOAA SUOMI mission here
The EUMETSAT AC SAF here
EUMETSAT agency here
TROPOMI WebPage here
Current Earth observation satellites with Sentinel-3 & Sentinel-5 Precursor WebPage here
Aerosol webPage here