Asian Dust Invades Alaska

Working with researchers from the University of Rhode Island, the Geophysical Institute's Dr. Glenn Shaw has discovered that the air over Alaska may regularly receive large injections of dust originating with sandstorms in the Takla Makan and Gobi deserts of Asia.

As much as a half-million tons of desert dust may pass over Alaska during a five-day event. The dust is carried in horizontal bands of "Arctic haze" blowing over the Pacific Ocean and into northern Alaska. Dr. Shaw and his coworkers are now beginning to take ground-level air samples at Fairbanks and Barrow to learn how much of the dust falls on Alaska and what effects the airborne dust might have on Arctic climate.