This Week in Weather: Tracking Dust in the Wind 1 00:00:01,501 --> 00:00:04,637 For five days, starting on February 17, 2021, NOAA satellites monitored a large plume of dust 2 00:00:04,637 --> 00:00:08,308 from the Sahara Desert traveling off the west coast of North Africa. 3 00:00:08,375 --> 00:00:15,348 GOES-16 and NOAA-20 captured the dramatic event as it unfolded. 4 00:00:15,348 --> 00:00:20,086 NASA's EPIC instrument on NOAA's DSCOVR satellite observed the scale of the plume. 5 00:00:20,086 --> 00:00:22,555 The dust seen is carried by the Saharan Air Layer, or SAL. 6 00:00:22,555 --> 00:00:29,295 The SAL can carry dust thousands of miles away from the Sahara. 7 00:00:29,295 --> 00:00:36,102 Saharan dust can suppress tropical storm development during hurricane season. 8 00:00:36,102 --> 00:00:41,107 And carries minerals that can replenish soil several thousand miles away to the Amazon Rainforest. 9 00:00:41,107 --> 00:00:47,213 The SAL is also known to carry dust north, blanketing Europe with a fine layer of dust. 10 00:00:47,213 --> 00:00:49,482 Combining data from multiple channels of GOES-16's imager, the satellite can distinguish 11 00:00:49,482 --> 00:00:52,452 the dust from clouds to help forecasters identify it more easily. 12 00:00:52,652 --> 00:00:56,790 The pink cloud here is the dust, artificially colored to stand out. 13 00:00:56,790 --> 00:01:00,093 NOAA Satellite and Information Service www.nesdis.noaa.gov NASA CIRA