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April 24, 2001 — A small Asian dust storm, with about one-fifth the haze effect of the previous storm, is passing over Colorado Tuesday. The storm came from the same region of the China-Mongolia area as the previous storm, which blanketed Colorado from April 14 to 18." The dust from this storm is concentrated between 7 and 9 kilometers," according to Russ Schnell, director of observatories for NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. (Click NOAA satellite image of China dust storm for larger view.)

Schnell says that the storm is moving faster than the earlier one. "Fortunately, it's not raining a lot of stuff down on us. It's rather interesting that the pathway that brought the first storm brought us this storm as well," Schnell said.

Scientists are studying the dust, using lidar or laser radar. On Tuesday, scientists from the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory sent a small aircraft aloft over Boulder to measure the amounts of dust and pollution present in the atmosphere, as a result of this fast moving dust storm. Schnell says the storm is heading east and if it holds together should reach the East Coast in three to four days.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory

ACE-Asia — Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiments

NOAA, NSF and Partners Study Asian Air Particles

See other NOAA satellite images at the following links.

Large view

Smaller view with text explanation

SeaWiFS (short for Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor) is a NASA satellite, with the Navy, NOAA and others, using the data.

NOAA Satellite Dust Imagery

Media Contacts:
Barbara McGehan, NOAA Research,Boulder, Colo., at (303) 497-6288 or Jana Goldman, NOAA Research, (301) 713-2483 ext. 181