Recent episodes of haze in Spain have shown us that desert dust It’s much more. Not only does it make everything dirty, but it can also cause health problems for vulnerable people, especially when it carries some toxic substances with it. But it can also increase global warming. The latter is an assumption that should be looked into more deeply, which is why NASA sent international space stationl tool called EMISSIONwho will analyze it.
EMIT, named after the English abbreviation for “Mineral Dust Source from the Earth’s Surface”, is an instrument consisting of advanced imaging spectrometer, capable of analyzing the color of dust particles floating in the atmosphere. This is very important as the darkest of them are worried about their ability absorb heat and contribute to global warming. The dust is now considered to be mostly yellow due to the equal amount of light and dark dust. However, he begins to suspect that there may be more of the latter than it seems.
And the International Space Station is the perfect place to study it, as it orbits around one of the driest regions on Earth. This is where most of the atmospheric dust comes from, so it can be studied from the source. Of course, we will still have to wait a bit to know its results, since it is not expected to start operating until the end of July.
Why is it important to study dust from the International Space Station?
The motes are of various types, although colored ones seem to predominate. Dark redwith the presence iron in its composition or clearer which contain clay.
These last will reflect sunlight, so they would be very useful for their help in cooling the planet. However, dark absorb the same radiation, causing the opposite effect. To date, it is not known exactly which particles predominate. That’s why NASA sent EMIT to the International Space Station. Your goal make notes and analyze the composition of dust around the world.
Thus, information about its role in global warming could be extracted. But also on many other issues. For example, as explained The Vergeatmospheric dust affects problems such as cloud formation, air quality or water availability. You can even speed up thaw if he sits on icy areas. And it’s not something impossible. Dust can travel for miles from North Africa to the Amazon jungle. All this with lots of stops causing havoc like the ones we live with in a haze.
You have to be vigilant to know how far this can go. And now it eye will operate from above, receiving recordings at the International Space Station. The NASA instrument was sent there on board SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Once there, it will begin taking measurements in late July to release data to be analyzed by NASA scientists. In this way, we will be able to find out to what extent this seemingly innocent dust contributes to accelerating the effects of global warming.
Source: Hiper Textual
