Dust storm increase ‘could alter climate change’

Satellite image of a dust storm from the Sahara desert hitting the Canary Islands Copyright: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Dust storm increase ‘could alter climate change’</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>Research shows that dust storms are increasing in certain parts of the world, including China and Africa’s Sahara desert. The latest estimates put global dust emissions at about 2,000-3,000 million tonnes each year. In parts of North Africa, annual dust production has increased tenfold in the last 50 years.</P><br />
<P>Dust storms transport large amounts of material for long distances and their increasing frequency could have serious consequences for the environment, according to Andrew Goudie of the University of Oxford. Goudie says the deposition of dust could affect climate change, disease transmission and air pollution. One concern is that as dust deposits increase, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could change, directly affecting temperatures and rainfall.</P><br />
<P>Using satellite imagery, scientists are able to monitor dust storms and have now identified the world’s primary dust source to be the Bodele depression in Chad. Drought, winds, increased grazing and deforestation all contribute to dust production.</P><br />
<P><a  href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3579578.stm" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full BBC Online news story</A></P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/dust-storm-increase-could-alter-climate-change/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/dust-storm-increase-could-alter-climate-change/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Research shows that dust storms are increasing in certain parts of the world, including China and Africa’s Sahara desert. The latest estimates put global dust emissions at about 2,000-3,000 million tonnes each year. In parts of North Africa, annual dust production has increased tenfold in the last 50 years.

Dust storms transport large amounts of material for long distances and their increasing frequency could have serious consequences for the environment, according to Andrew Goudie of the University of Oxford. Goudie says the deposition of dust could affect climate change, disease transmission and air pollution. One concern is that as dust deposits increase, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could change, directly affecting temperatures and rainfall.

Using satellite imagery, scientists are able to monitor dust storms and have now identified the world’s primary dust source to be the Bodele depression in Chad. Drought, winds, increased grazing and deforestation all contribute to dust production.

Link to full BBC Online news story