A Unique Case-Study of Near-Circular Saharan Dust Transport over the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

An occurrence of transportation of Saharan dust from equatorial West African and back to Europe and Africa around theAtlantic Oceanwas synoptically analyzed. The entire circle around the Atlantic took twelve days. The direction and speed of the dust cloud was governed by the position, the strength and the movement of the Center of Activity (COA) of the Azores High. This type of trajectory is quite rare. In the year 2009 (the year of the analyzed trajectory) it occurred only 8 times. We assume, that the interesting point in this type of trajectory is the possibility that in its long way, it collects from and deposits in, different types of aerosols at the American European and African continents and the Ocean between them.