Dust poles are a natural phenomenon that is part of the nutrient cycle on Earth. It occurs when high-speed winds pick up very small dry particles from the Earth's surface and carry them over long distances.
Every summer, columns of dust travel from the African desert across the Atlantic Ocean, often submerging in the ocean, but the size of this summer varied as it advanced directly to America.
The largest of its kind
The eyes of anxious satellites were watching the column as it evolved and headed to the sea, as it followed the Copernicos Sentinel and Aeolus of the European Space Agency (ESA) advancing the column.
The column is very large, as reported by the report of the Universe Today website on July 13, and reported by Science Alert. This year, the column got the nickname Godzilla, in what meteorologists call it the air layer. The Sahrawi "SAL".
This desert air layer forms between late spring and early fall, and strong surface winds pick up dust and carry it in the air over the Atlantic Ocean.
If the conditions are appropriate, the dust moves to the upper troposphere of the atmosphere, and is then transported all the way to the Caribbean or the United States on a journey of 8,000 kilometers.
Records of the desert dust column date back about 20 years, and Godzilla is considered the largest of its kind, and it is common for this column to reach the United States, but its size is very large.
The NOAA says the column is about 60 to 70% larger than the average.
Aeolus' unique data
Aeolus data for the dust column is unique, because it is the first satellite designed to gain ground wind profiles on a global basis, and it helps to build much more sophisticated forecasts and models, partly by determining wind altitudes with greater accuracy.
The image below was taken last June 19, and it is a composite image from the "Copernicus Sentinel-5B" satellite and the "Aeolus" satellite, and the base layer, the aerosol index, appears in bright yellow from the "5B" (5B), while Aeolus forms clouds on the top.
Aeolus data can determine the height to which the dust layer travels, and in this image it appears that most of the dust was at a distance of 3-6 km (1.8 - 3.7 miles) above the surface of the earth.
Different space agencies now have a fleet of satellites that monitor the Earth, and can closely monitor things like this dust column, and each satellite can contain a different mix of tools that together give a fuller understanding of Earth's atmosphere events.
Benefits of dust
Although its appearance on satellite images is surprising, the dust column may actually be good news.
According to the National Oceanic Administration, these poles can actually prevent hurricanes from forming, and they can also prevent those that are forming from becoming more powerful and destructive.
Dust is also a nutritional source for phytoplankton, which are small marine plants that float near the ocean's surface.
Phytoplankton is crucial to the food web, providing food to animals at the top of the food chain, and phytoplankton also photosynthesis, creating oxygen for the biosphere.
Dust poles also replenish nutrients in remote areas such as the Amazon rainforest, where frequent and frequent rains can deplete essential nutrients.
Without these columns, the Amazon would likely not exhibit such astonishing biodiversity, and it might not have had a complex food web.
It also has damages
But there is bad news associated with the dust column, as a dust cloud can harm air quality and pose a health hazard, especially for people with underlying health conditions.
This is partly due to the fact that dust travel drops many large particles, and the smaller particles remain, which are the most dangerous to people's health.
But for many people in the column path, the part they will remember is the sunset, for with all this dust in the air both sunset and sunrise will look amazing.