Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6893-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6893-2019
Research article
 | 
23 May 2019
Research article |  | 23 May 2019

The sensitivity of the colour of dust in MSG-SEVIRI Desert Dust infrared composite imagery to surface and atmospheric conditions

Jamie R. Banks, Anja Hünerbein, Bernd Heinold, Helen E. Brindley, Hartwig Deneke, and Kerstin Schepanski

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Saharan dust storms may be observed over the desert using false-colour infrared satellite imagery; in one widely used scheme dust displays characteristic pink colours. Simulating satellite imagery using a dust transport model, we confirm that water vapour is a major control on the apparent colour of dust in the false-colour imagery and that dust displays its deepest colours when it is at a high altitude and when the atmosphere is dry. Water vapour can obscure the presence of low-altitude dust.
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