Dust outbreak over Mediterranean and SE Europe

by HansPeter Roesli (Switzerland)

The dust uptake was not directly linked to the frontal cloud system of the disturbance. The uptake started with a breakdown of the boundary layer on 28 May.

In the Dust RGB product (Figure 1) the dust signal over the African coast was relatively weak (coloured blue) over the sea indicating a very low dust cloud which is cooler than the underlying Mediterranean Sea. This became stronger (coloured pink), from the evening of the 28 May onwards when travelling with the clouds from the disturbance. The dust veil is also expanding southwards over Libya during the night 28/29.

Note the timid brightening in the animation from the Natural Colour RGB product around midnight. This is not related to the dust but is due to the waning full Moon crossing the scene from west to east.