SAL / West African Rains

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tropicstorm
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SAL / West African Rains

#1 Postby tropicstorm » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:57 pm

There is much recent discussion as to SAL being one of the main culprits against recent Atlantic tropical storm formation. If SAL = Saharan Air Layer = dust storms originating from the Saharan Desert (North Africa), does this also impede the development of the west African rainy season, the actual catalyst for the birth of Cape Verde waves off the west African coast? Geographically, the CV islands are just on the southern boundary of the Sahara region - it would seem that a surge in SAL conditions would diminish the African rainy season. Any correlation here?
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AussieMark
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#2 Postby AussieMark » Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:15 pm

the SAL is really breaking down tho.

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real- ... 0split.jpg
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gpickett00
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#3 Postby gpickett00 » Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:35 pm

why is it so strong near california?
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mahicks
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#4 Postby mahicks » Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:51 pm

gpickett00 wrote:why is it so strong near california?



I thought about that the other day...I would like to know the answer to that too!
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#5 Postby wxmann_91 » Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:40 pm

The thing also picks up extremely dry and stable air, which is what we have here in California. But how you can tell whether it is SAL or not is that SAL moves and that it comes from the Sahara.

You can see that the area around Spain and much of the extreme bottom of the map and the area of red near California are not moving. On the other hand, you can also see how oranges and reds spiral out of the Sahara and then propogate across the Atlantic.

(Java 5-day loop of SAL)
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/wavetrak/movies/m8g10split/m8g10splitjava5.html

Hope this helps! :D
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#6 Postby Recurve » Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:44 pm

Wow, "maybe-Jose" really managed to squeeze in between those two puffs of dry air.
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