UM Professor Emeritus Joseph M. Prospero analyzes the
effects of Saharan dust on air quality in the Caribbean
Basin.
Air quality in the Caribbean is
not something that creates headlines in the United States,
but it is something Joseph M. Prospero has been studying
for the past 50 years.
In the Caribbean, air quality often violates the standards
set by the World Health Organization. Despite
their low greenhouse gas emissions and little
industrialization, the Caribbean countries fare worse in
regards to air quality than their more industrialized
counterparts in Europe. The reason is pretty unexpected.
As implausible as it may sound, dust from the Sahara Desert,
suspended thousands of feet up in the air, moves across the
Atlantic Ocean and is contributing to poor air quality in
the Caribbean.
Fine aerosols are tiny particles, both natural and
industrial, such as sea salt, dust, ash and soot, that float
in the air. These tiny particles are a concern because, when
breathed in high concentrations, they can harm the human
lungs and produce a wide range of health problems including
asthma.
Prospero has been carrying out atmospheric research at UM
since 1963. Much of his research has focused on aerosols
that are transported great distances over the ocean and into
the Caribbean.
About the Photo
A view of UM’s atmospheric chemistry research facility on
Barbados, a 17-meter tower with labs at the base, which
measures dust from the African continent moving east to
the Caribbean, looking up from the easternmost end of
Ragged Point, Barbados. Photo courtesy of: Joseph M.
Prospero
Prospero, nicknamed the “father of dust,” is now using his
tenure and experience to take a closer look at the air
quality in the Caribbean Basin.
He is analyzing the effect that the global transport of dust
from the Sahara has on the atmospheric composition above the
Caribbean using a system of ground stations and satellites.
Prospero’s principal site is located in Barbados where he
started his studies in 1966. Eventually, his goal is to
create an integrated Caribbean network for monitoring air
quality.
He is teaming up with officials and organizations in Mexico,
Colombia, French Guiana, Cuba and Puerto Rico, among others,
in the hopes to establish an “ad hoc” cooperative network to
integrate the learned effects of dust transport in the
Caribbean.
To do so, Prospero is combining this research with satellite
data and models to provide a broad picture of dust impacts
and provide more depth and a greater utility to his data.
He envisions a system that can monitor the atmospheric
composition above the Caribbean Basin and send alerts to
healthcare and communication infrastructure to warn local
populations about dust events, just as there are warning
systems in the United States to alert areas of high ozone
days.
The health alerts would be an important tool, Prospero notes,
for people living in the Caribbean. Unfortunately,
connecting Prospero’s research to the existing
infrastructure in the region is proving to be difficult.
“There is no uniform air quality infrastructure among governments
in the region,” he explains. “There is no integrated view across
the Caribbean on what qualifies as a high dust day, or what the
appropriate response should be.”
Bridging this gap is necessary for Prospero’s long-term goal. He
hopes that his data, combined with satellite and modeling data,
will provide the basis to predict future dust events and provide
forecasts for the Caribbean.
