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Never underestimate the power of something small. Researchers are finding that Saharan dust storms containing tiny specks of dust are linked to suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic. Jason Dunion, a hurricane researcher at the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory’s Hurricane Research Division in Miami, FL, and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, studied the past 25 years of satellite data. They found that during times of intense hurricane activity, the large clouds of dust that periodically blow westward from the Saharan Desert are relatively scarce. In years when there were fewer hurricanes, the dust storms were stronger and tended to spread over much of the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. “The research conducted by Dunion and his colleagues is improving our understanding of hurricanes and what affects their behavior,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This is another example of how NOAA’s research provides value to society. This work will provide another data point used to make better forecasts and warnings, which translates into saving lives and protecting property.” The findings were published in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters in October 2006. The lead author is Amato Evan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dunion said the work is a piece of a larger puzzle, where researchers are trying to understand how the various components of these dust storms—dry air, strong winds and suspended dust—can act to suppress hurricane formation and intensification. “This research is still in its infancy, but the results of this most recent study are very encouraging,” Dunion said. It represents the first long-term analysis of the relationship between Saharan dust storms and hurricanes and supports our previous hypotheses that these dust storms tend to suppress hurricane formation.” RARE SAMPLE |
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