Scientists studying 25 years of satellite images have found that the frequency of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean was substantially reduced in years when sandstorms and trade winds combined to send millions of tons of dust streaming west over the sea from the Sahara Desert. The correlation, measured by a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin and federal agencies, is described in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters. Layers of dry, dusty air, moving at up to 50 miles an hour, can disrupt tropical storms in several ways. The research shows that many factors can affect hurricane seasons, complicating efforts to determine whether global warming has played a role recently, some of the authors said.
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