ORLANDO, Fla. – The first plume of Saharan dust is expected to reach the Sunshine State as early as this weekend.
Winds are very strong over the African continent and across the Atlantic Basin, and that’ll help blow the dust — which is called the Saharan Air Layer — across the Atlantic to impact the southeastern United States.
The altitude of this dust ranges from 5,000-20,000 feet and can be observed from satellite images.
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When the dust arrives, you’ll notice that at sunrise and sunset, the colors in the sky are vibrant and just absolutely beautiful, but why does this happen?
Normally when the sun is lower in the sky, the light travels through more atmosphere. As this happens, it scatters the shorter wavelength colors such as blue, purple and green. This allows the longer wavelength colors — orange, pink and red — to reach the human eye.
Add dust or smoke to the atmosphere and those tiny particles not only act to block some sunlight, but they also reflect it and scatter the colors even more.
Additional scattering will create more vivid hues of reds, oranges, pinks, yellows — even purples.
Saharan dust is composed of various minerals, including silicates such as quartz and clay.
As you may have guessed, it’s the iron oxides that create that ochre hue.
Keep those cameras nearby for when we do have Saharan dust in the area and be sure to share your gorgeous pictures with us on PinIT!
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