The University of La Laguna (ULL) participates together with the University of Virginia Tech (USA) in a NASA project for the analysis of Saharan air masses that, among other contributions, would allow perfecting the warning systems capable of forecasting episodes of haze
The idea is that it can be predicted if the massive eruption of Saharan dust will affect one island or another, so that the population can be warned to take the necessary precautions and measures to avoid the harmful effects caused by dust particles. suspended dust, informs the ULL.
The project Microbial Biodiversity in Trans-Atlantic Dust Plumes (MIAD), financed entirely by NASA with 1.1 million dollars, consists of evaluating the changes that occur in the different microorganisms present in the air masses originating in the Sahara desert that, after flying over the Canary Islands, reach the continent American, a phenomenon that occurs mainly on the east coast of the United States.
Analysis of the bacteria and other microorganisms present in the dust clouds that form the haze will allow the development of physical models that predict large-scale dust transport.
Cristina González, a researcher at the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, dependent on the ULL, is in charge of evaluating the changes in the microbial composition of these dust columns together with the expert in Plant Pathology and professor at the Faculty of Botany and Environmental Sciences from Virginia Tech University David Schmale.
“Our part of the research work consists of providing the samples that we take in Tenerife, as it is a point of passage for these African air masses, which we later analyze together with those collected by Professor Schmale along the Atlantic Ocean,” he explains. Gonzalez.
The objective is to see how its composition varies during the journey and thus help in the creation of transport models that the project’s principal investigator, Hosein Foroutan, develops together with his team in the United States.
David Schmale details that the microorganisms change in the four or seven days that they usually take to reach the American coasts, since it depends on whether they go up very high or not and on the movements along the way.
Beyond the analysis of the biological part, within the framework of the project there are physicists who measure other parameters, such as the optical thickness, the thickness of the layer or the movement of these microorganisms within the air flows that exist in the Atlantic.
Although the project began two years ago, the delays caused by the covid-19 pandemic have prevented, until now, sharing the previously committed samples and the new ones authorized by NASA, the ULL said in the statement.
The reason for David Schmale’s recent visit to the University of La Laguna was precisely the collection and transfer to his country of the samples taken at the two points established in Tenerife: La Laguna, specifically the roof of the building of the Institute of Tropical Diseases , and Izana.
The intakes from both sampling points contain particles of different sizes because the larger ones, weighing more, are deposited before the smaller ones, capable of remaining in suspension for longer.
The size of the particles that reach Tenerife is greater than that of those that reach the United States because as they are deposited, those that reach the American coasts are always smaller, the researchers indicate.
Saharan dust clouds also act in Europe, but to a lesser extent than in the United States, where it especially affects its east coast during the months of June, July and August.
“The origin of the dust is the Sahara desert, and the first receptor is Tenerife, but the great receptor is the United States,” points out Schmale, a researcher with a long history in the development of cutting-edge technology in the sampling of dispersion studies of microorganisms and a pioneer in the use of drones in Aerobiology.
Although the MITAD project is still in its initial phase due to delays caused by the pandemic, and its completion is not expected for two years, the universities of La Laguna and Virginia Tech plan to continue cooperating and develop future studies that continue their line of research.