Allison Moon 🌙 🍁 (@shewandersferal.bsky.social)

More And More Of The Sahara Is Ending Up In Europe After Europe has spent decades cleaning up its air pollution, restless dust all the way from the Sahara Desert is becoming an increasing burden on air quality. In a new study, scientists used artificial intelligence (AI) to track the movement of dust across Europe between 2012 and 2021. While levels of tiny particles of air pollution from gas-guzzling engines and industry have declined, there was a significant surge in desert dust, especially in southern Europe. The sand is sweeping up from the Sahara in North Africa, blowing across the Mediterranean, and hanging in the atmosphere over southern Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Balkans, and Greece. The Saharan sand is even reaching as far as northern Europe, although it's a minor dusting compared to more southern regions closer to Africa. Nevertheless, the levels of desert dust reaching northern Europe increased at a pace identical to that of the south, suggesting it "could become a growing concern for these regions in the future," the study reads. Sometimes, that dust makes its presence known in a dramatic fashion. On October 16, 2017, the skies over the British Isles turned a surreal sepia hue and the Sun glowed blood red. The eerie spectacle was the... https://www.iflscience.com/more-and-more-of-the-sahara-is-ending-up-in-europe-84112