On April 6, a significant dust storm occurred in the Gobi Desert. The resulting dust cloud was transported over the Pacific Ocean and impacted the continental United States. Using a combination of satellite imagery, modeling and ground observations, the rough position of the plume was located over the Southwestern US during April 12 though 16, 2001. Routine aerosol monitoring by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and the City of Albuquerque allowed hourly observations during this episode. Based on the hourly PM2.5 and PM10 observations, the Asian dust plume has been detected over northern New Mexico, although not significantly. This event followed two significant dust storms that affected most of the state. The plots on this page represent a north-south cross section of particulate matter concentrations across New Mexico.
On April 30, another Asian dust episode impacted New Mexico.
Technical references to long range transport of dust:
- Husar et al. (2001) "The Asian Dust Event of April 1998" published in Journal of Geophysical Research
- NAAPS aerosol forecasts for North America (look for the green areas coming in from the Pacific in the "Optical Depth" map)
- Gobi dust in Greenland Glaciers, 1996 research findings
- GOCART global aerosol forecast model output
Last updated on 8 June 2003
