Polar winds stir desert dust

“Everything in the Earth’s climate system is connected. Our study shows that changes near the North Pole can cause severe weather events in the Middle East,” says atmospheric scientist Diana Francis of New York University Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Warming in the northern polar region appears to be causing changes in the polar jet circulation, she explains.

The analysis was based on a variety of ground observations and satellite data. The evidence suggests that a southward movement of the polar jet was the main driver of the large dry cyclone that developed over Iraq on 31 August 2015. This generated intense dust storms over most countries of the Arabian Gulf through early September. The cyclone in Iraq was  traced back to events in the atmosphere over Turkey one day earlier, and ultimately to more distant changes in the polar jet shortly beforehand.

"By drawing on a wide variety of observational sources, this study paints a fairly comprehensive picture of the evolution of the events from start to finish," comments meteorology researcher Earle Williams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, who was not involved in the study. 

The researchers point out that the transport of mineral dust in the atmosphere affects the Earth’s climate and agriculture in regions far from the origins of the dust. Studying the processes involved will help elucidate existing atmospheric patterns as well as the potential impact of climate change.

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