Since 11 April EUMETSAT has been part of a project tracking the research ship Polarstern. The ship is cruising from Punta Arenas (Chile) to Bremerhaven (arriving 16 May), taking continuous measurements of atmospheric and marine properties, plus energy and material fluxes between ocean and atmosphere.

This week Polarstern crossed the equator on its journey to Bremerhaven. Although the weather has been calm, the skies have not been clear. Saharan sand has been carried out to sea by an African easterly jet, a specific type of wind pattern. The dust is 1,500m to 6,000m above the ground and at sea it leads to reduced visibility (about 4km). As well as witnessing the reduction in visability, meteorologists on board the ship discovered deposits of sand on deck (pictured below left).

This dust can be seen clearly from space, showing up as pink in top image (below right). The image was produced using a particular set of channels from the MSG satellite, these channels are sensitive to dust in the atmosphere. The dust can also be seen in the visible image (below right, bottom image) as a brown haze over the ocean. 

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