

	Global Dust Storms The NASA Earth Observatory highlights unique imagery captured by from it's Satellite missions. One category that accumulated a substantial archive of dust storm events around the globe. I am particularly interested in those dust storms that are generated from the Sahara Desert of North Africa. I wanted to get a basic idea of the annual frequency and impact to three main regions: the Mediterranean, the Atlantic (south of ~20°) where the Cape Verde Islands sit, and the Atlantic (north of ~20 of ~20°) where the Canary Islands are found. I also included a category for dust events that were captured on the mainland. Click on the image map below for a collection of links to the Earth Observatory pages of the dust storms that were captured mainly by MODIS Aqua and Terra satellites. To subscribe to the Earth Observatory Newletter, including Natural Hazards updates, go here.

	Figure 1. Map of the four regions for which dust storms were categorized.

	Figure 2. The frequency of large dust storms captured by MODIS Aqua and Terra satellites described in the EOS Observatory dust image archive, categorized by month into three regional categories. These statistics are affected by the satellite acquistion times, and probably don't nearly capture the true frequency or complete seasonality of dust storms occurring in North Africa.

					Figure 3. These are the same statistics as above, but are grouped into four seasonal groups. It is easier to get an idea of the total number of dust storms that have occurred from these groupings.