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The African source of the Amazon's fertilizer Sid Perkins In the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, massive dust storms from the African Sahara waft southwest across the Atlantic to drop tons of vital minerals on the Amazon basin in South America. Now, scientists have pinpointed the source of many of those dust storms and estimated their dust content. ON THE WAY. Satellite photo shows dust (arrow), bound for the Amazon, blowing away from the Sahara's Bodélé depression. NASA The Amazonian rainforest depends on Saharan dust for many of its nutrients, including iron and phosphorus (SN: 9/29/01, p. 200: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010929/bob9.asp)....

This story is actually quite fascinating and it obviously has something to do with changes in the climate, but just how to explain it all remains a subject of contention. You would think that increasing temperatures would make things worse in the deserts of the world, but in a rather counterintuitive instance of planet watching, it appears that the Sahara desert may actually be shrinking. A few thousand years ago, a mighty river flowed through the Sahara across what is today Sudan. The Wadi Howar—now just a dried-out riverbed for most of the year—sustained not just fish, crocodiles, and...

Could dandruff be altering the world’s climate? Along with fur, algae, pollen, fungi, bacteria, viruses and various other “bio-aerosols” wafting around in the atmosphere, it may well be. A global study has found that tiny fragments of biological detritus are a major component of the atmosphere, controlling the weather and forming a previously hidden microbial metropolis in the skies. Besides their climatic influence, they may even be spreading diseases across the globe. Scientists have known for some time that aerosols of soot, dust and ash can influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the Sun’s rays and by providing the condensation...

(ON MONDAY 10-24-2016 OUR DAUGHTER TRACI'S BIRTHDAY I WROTE THE FOLLOWING): CALL BE CRAZY AND LAUGH, BUT I BELIEVE THAT WHICH THE WORLD CALLS THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING IS ACTUALLY "THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL DUSTING." TRUE, I'M NOT A METEOROLOGIST OR CLIMATE EXPERT, BUT NEITHER ARE THE ONE'S WITH DEGREES "LOL". I've made many such claims since I was a little boy and most have become reality as confirmed by science and other formal authorities, PLUS my own Family and Friends. My theory here is, due to there being more people on earth at this time than ever before...

Scientists flew a plane into high up cirrus clouds and used a sampler that resembled a hair dryer to examine cloud formation © Karl FroydMineral dust that swirls up into the atmosphere from Earth’s surface plays a far more important role in both cloud formation and cloud chemistry than was previously realised. The findings will feed into models of cloud formation and chemistry to help produce more accurate assessments of the role of clouds in climate change.Relatively little is understood about the formation of cirrus clouds, wispy ‘horsetails’ that are made of ice crystals and form at extremely high altitudes...

How dust from the Sahara is fuelling the Amazon

On top of the world! Sensational collection of satellite images captures Earth's natural wonders from space CHER THORNHILL 25th July 2009 For decades, man has gazed up at the stars and marvelled at the wonders of the universe. But, as this amazing selection of images shows, there are many mind-blowing sights to behold from the other direction. [Pics in URL] Pictures taken by astronauts and Nasa satellites give a fascinating bird's-eye view of Earth's natural wonders - including hurricanes, volcanoes and other powerful weather formations - from space. A mosaic of Nasa satellite images gives the most detailed true-colour image...

A plan to build a 6,000km-long wall across the Sahara Desert to stop the spread of the desert has been outlined. The barrier - formed by solidifying sand dunes - would stretch from Mauritania in the west of Africa to Djibouti in the east. The plan was put forward by architect Magnus Larsson at the TED Global conference in Oxford. A 2007 UN study described desertification as "the greatest environmental challenge of our times".