The motivation for the study was to maximise the amount of information conveyed to the model, particularly regarding water-vapour, and to minimise the computational load during the assimilation process. The experiments were conducted at ECMWF using their operational Integrated Forecast System (IFS). The forecast skills were evaluated against independent reference measurements.
Desert dust particles are lifted into the atmosphere by gusts of surface wind and can be transported and deposited thousands of kilometres away.
When Saharan dust travels over populated areas, it can reduce air quality and impact health by causing respiratory problems and cause flight delays. Over the oceans, dust can act as a fertiliser, stimulating blooms of tiny marine plants (phytoplankton) that are the basis for the marine food chain.
The cloud patterns are known as von Kármán vortices and are formed over the ocean when islands disrupt the wind flow. The strength of the wind affects the patterns of the swirls.
Von Kármán vortices are named after Theodore von Kármán, the pioneering Hungarian-American physicist and aeronautical engineer.
The bloom is most likely caused by coccolithophores (cyan colour) and other phytoplankton species. Phytoplankton play a key role in marine ecosystems as the basis of the food chain.
Many aeroplane contrails are also visible in the image over England, the Channel and northern France.
There is also an additional zoomed-in view (below) captured on the same day by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, showing ships moving north through the bloom area.