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“Godzilla,” the Extreme African Dust Event of June 2020: Origins, Transport, and Impact on Air Quality in the Greater Caribbean Basin

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
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  1. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Univ. of Miami (Florida)
  3. Univ. of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR (United States)
  4. NOAA/Global Monitoring Laboratory, Boulder, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  5. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  6. State Meteorological Agency of Spain (Spain)
  7. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
  8. State Meteorological Agency of Spain (Spain); Tragsatec, Madrid (Spain)
  9. Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City (Mexico)
  10. Univ. of Paris (France)
  11. National Weather Service (NWS), PR (United States)
  12. Univ. of Antilles, Guadeloupe (France)
  13. Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL (United States)
  14. Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, St. James, (Barbados)
  15. Autonomous Univ. of Yucatan (Mexico)
  16. Max Planck Inst. for Meteorology (Germany)
  17. George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
In June 2020, the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean Basin were affected by a series of African dust outbreaks unprecedented in size and intensity. These events, informally named “Godzilla,” coincided with CALIMA, a large field campaign, offering a rare opportunity to assess the impact of African dust on air quality in the Greater Caribbean Basin. Network measurements of respirable particles (i.e., PM10 and PM2.5) showed that dust significantly degraded regional air quality and increased the risk to public health in the Caribbean, the southern United States, northern South America, and Central America. CALIMA examined the meteorological context of Godzilla dust events over North Africa and how these conditions might relate to the greatly increased dust emissions and enhanced transport to the Americas. Godzilla was linked to strong pressure anomalies over West Africa, resulting in a large-scale geostrophic wind anomaly at 700 hPa over North Africa. We used surface-based and columnar measurements to test the performance of two frequently used aerosol forecast models: the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) and Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) models. The models showed some skills but differed substantially between their forecasts, suggesting large uncertainties in these forecasts that are critical for issuing early warnings of health-threatening dust events. Our results demonstrate the value of an integrated approach in characterizing the spatial and temporal variability of African dust transport and assessing its impact on regional air quality. Future studies are needed to improve models and to track the long-term changes in dust transport from Africa under a changing climate.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Contributing Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
2589066
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 106; ISSN 0003-0007; ISSN 1520-0477
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

Aerosols/particulates
Air quality and health
Climate
Dust or dust storms
Satellite observations
Surface observations