Five wild facts about the Saharan dust plume before it hit the US
A view of the Sahara dust plume taken on June 18, 2020 (NASA Worldview/)Expansive dust clouds arise from the sun-baked Sahara each year, making the 5,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the southern United States. While these dust plumes tend to stay intact while traveling across the ocean, they typically diffuse by the time they hit the Caribbean. But this year, things are different. This month’s dust cloud is more resilient than usual—its dust is so opaque and thick that it can be clearly seen from the International Space Station, while its predecessors have been ghostly and faint from space. Astronaut Doug Hurley photographed the cloud from the ISS on June 21, tweeting, “We flew over this Saharan dust plume today in the west central Atlantic. Amazing how large an area it covers!”These dust plumes, called the Saharan Air Layer (or SAL) are born when severe wind storms strike the...