WORLD WIDE WINDS

Satellite imagery is leading to some spectacular results.  Recently the Lamont –Doherty Earth Observatory Lab at Columbia University traced atmospheric pollutants that originated over east Europe and Asia across the Pacific ocean  to the west coast of North America.  Transit time was six days.  Of course, the dust doesn’t stop there but keeps circling around while slowly settling out of the atmosphere.  Biscayne and others at Lamont have found ”intercontinental” dust in Greenland ice cores from 1500 to 44,00 years ago.

The amounts settling out seems small - from a few milligrams per square centimeter per thousand years to perhaps twice that amount over Asia.

Science V.290 p.2258 

01/08/04 19:17