A new computer model of the atmosphere can now actually pinpoint where global dust events come from, and can project where they’re going. The model may help scientists better evaluate the impact of dust on human health, climate, ocean carbon cycles, ecosystems, and atmospheric chemistry.

Also, by seeing where dust originates and where it blows people with respiratory problems can get advanced warning of approaching dust clouds. “The model is physically more realistic than previous ones,” said Mian Chin, a co-author of the study and an Earth and atmospheric scientist at Georgia Tech and the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. “It is able to reproduce the short term day-to-day variations and long term inter-annual variations of dust concentrations and distributions that are measured from field experiments and observed from satellites.”

The above images show both aerosols measured from space (left) and the movement of aerosols predicted by computer model for the same date (right).

For more information, read New Computer Model Tracks and Predicts Paths Of Earth’s Dust

Images courtesy Paul Giroux, Georgia Tech/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center