Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its impacts are felt at a very local level.
Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its impacts are felt at a very local level.
Take, for example, dust. Dust can have a huge impact on local air quality, food security, energy supply and public health. Yet, little is known about how global climate change is impacting dust levels.
Previous studies have found that dust levels are actually decreasing across India, particularly northern India, the Persian Gulf Coast and much of the Middle East, but the reason has remained unclear. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are working to understand how global climate change is impacting dust levels in the region.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers led by Michael B. McElroy, the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at SEAS, found that the decrease in dust can be attributed to the Arctic warming much faster than the rest of the planet, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. This process destabilizes the jet stream and changes storm tracks and wind patterns over the major sources of dust in West and South Asia — namely the Arabian Peninsula and the Thar Desert between India and Pakistan.
Read more at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Photo Credit: mostafa_meraji via Pixabay
