Rider of the Tradewinds

 

Hunor Deak

Poem

Rider of the Tradewinds

Inspiration

This was inspired by a NASA video where satellites track dust from the Sahara desert traveling to the jungles of South America, mostly to the Amazon basin. Nutrients from the Sahara desert such as iron and sulfur play an important role in keeping the rain-forest alive. Where the Amazon jungle is located, the place is under heavy rain through the year, therefore the soil is thin and gets easily washed away. The sand from the desert ensures a steady supply of nutrients for the vegetation. I find it amazing how there is a link between the bone dry desert of the Sahara, where almost nothing grows, yet, the nutrients from the sand, through the magic of the tradewinds supply the rain forest in Brazil with life. There is this deep connection between the atmosphere and the lithosphere!

Sand dunes in the air

Wind snatches up a patch of sand from a dune,

Particles dance in the wind ever briefly,

Sand, ground down from long last mountains,

Rises up into the atmosphere ever briefly.

Tradewinds carry particles into the thin, warm air,

Massive plumes, that spacemen see,

Plumes colour the blue air, yellow,

Tradewinds carry the particles down South.

Across the Ocean,

Over the ocean,

Through the air,

Through the blue.

Particles rain down upon the jungle,

Mixed in with the rain, the sand,

Sand, rich in iron, sulfur and phosphorous, it feeds the fish,

It feeds the rainforests.

NASA and Satellites

Volcano eruptions can wreak havoc on airplanes that fly through the clouds of ash and sulfur dioxide. The ash, in particular, can destroy a jet engine and even cause it to fail mid-flight. However, it can be difficult to detect the ash clouds, because they often look like ordinary rain clouds on radar and to the pilot’s eye. To be cautious, volcanic eruptions are given a wide bearth, leading to costly delays and cancellations.

NASA scientist Nickolay Krotkov is developing a new way to map the full three-dimensional structure of the volcanic cloud. The NASA/NOAA/DoD Suomi NPP satellite maps the concentration of sulfur dioxide and volcanic aerosols using the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS). After it passes the volcanic plume, the OMPS Limb Profiler looks backwards and measures the vertical profile of the cloud in three separate slices.

The location and height of the particles, as well as the amount of sulfur dioxide, is being integrated into models of weather patterns to forecast the spread of the volcanic cloud. Thigh resolution of the vertical profiles allows a more accurate forecast in the days, weeks, and months after an eruption, which could reduce airline cancellations and re-routing costs.