Increased drought risk in Puerto Rico correlates with Saharan dust plumes

Saharan dust routinely crosses the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Islands. Credit: Pixabay

The Climate Program Office’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program and National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) supported a new study that investigates Saharan dust as it journeys across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. This annual phenomenon has long fascinated researchers, and CPO-supported scientists Paul Miller (Louisiana State University) and Craig Ramseyer (Virginia Tech) highlight a newly identified connection between Saharan dust and droughts in the Caribbean. This paper, published in JGR Atmospheres, builds on a growing body of research funded by MAPP and NIDIS to characterize and anticipate complex interactions related to drought.

Using an innovative machine learning technique called self-organizing maps, the researchers identified distinct patterns in the trans-Atlantic dust transport, shedding light on how the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) affects convection and rainfall in the Caribbean islands.