Here in Arizona, we have personal experience with dust storms, called “haboobs,” that carry large quantities of dust for miles on atmospheric gravity currents. Similar storms are observed in the Sahara desert, across the Arabian Peninsula, in Kuwait, and regions of North America.
The word “haboob” derives from a term used in Sudan, Africa. Although the atmospheric forces at work in arid regions on different continents might not be the same, the effects are similar, carrying dust and debris for miles.
At the joint meeting of the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing held in Gainesville, Florida, during the first week of November, 2013, Dr. Andrew Schuerger, a plant pathologist and astrobiologist at the University of Florida, shared the results of his research on the atmospheric plumes from African dust storms that dump 50 million metric tons of dust on Florida and the eastern United States each summer.
According the Schuerger, “North America is being hit [by these plumes] more than any other country in the world.”
To collect the dust, Schuerger partners with Earthrise Space Inc. (ESI) in the Dust Altitude Recovery Technology (DART) program. AN f104 Starfighter jet, with a collection pod, takes off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility and collects dust from the troposphere, the lowest and densest level of the Earth’s atmosphere, which is about 11 miles thick at the equator and about 4 miles thick at the poles.
It’s possible, Schuerger says, that outbreaks of plant and animal diseases with untraceable sources could come from pathogens drifting across the ocean from Africa or other plume-producing arid regions. For example, Schuerger recounts the outbreak of Foot and mouth disease that occurred in the United Kingdom in 22001. Foot and mouth disease is a severe, contagious and often fatal disease of cloven-hoofed animals.
Pathologists couldn’t pin down a source of the pathogen. Schuerger has a hypothesis, however. Ten days prior to the start of the outbreak a dust plume from Morocco spiraled and dumped on Great Britain. Ten days later, the first case of foot and mouth disease was recorded.
To collect the dust, Schuerger partners with Earthrise Space Inc. (ESI) in the Dust Altitude Recovery Technology (DART) program. AN f104 Starfighter jet, with a collection pod, takes off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility and collects dust from the troposphere, miles above Florida
Schuerger says emphatically that there is no proof that the Morroccan plume carried the disease to Great Britain; the connection is just speculative because no samples from the dust plume were examined. He sites the possibility of a connection between the Moroccan plume and foot and mouth disease as a reason why these plumes should be studied.
As Schueger continues to collect and analyze samples, the possibility of making a connection between traveling dust and the transmission of disease could soon become a reality.
© 2013
