And the Lord said to him, I am going to present myself before you in the midst of a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speak with you and so I will always have confidence in you. (Exodus 19 9, NIV).
Perhaps you have been noticing in recent weeks that the sky has "dirtied" sometimes, or that it has been presented opaque, without its usual blue. The cause is none other than the dust of the Sahara desert, often carried westward by the dominant winds of the tropical zone.
This layer of very dry air can extend vertically in the troposphere from 5 thousand to 20 thousand feet. Scientists claim that thousands of tons of phosphorus contained in the masses of dust provide essential nutrients for the health of the Amazon rainforest each year.
On the other hand, it has been found that when falling into the ocean the fine particles favor the spread of toxic algae in the Gulf of Mexico and South Florida. In the Spanish coasts cause the appearance of red tides and the salinization of the soils of the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the Mediterranean coast.
It is believed that the Sahara Air Layer (SAL) has an important effect on the emergence and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes.
These atmospheric systems can be weakened by dry air, which suppresses the rising currents of the storm, and the horizontal winds that transport the SAL significantly change the shear, stressed NOAA. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).
