Building Better Dust Detection

Throughout the world, dust storms wreak havoc on many aspects of human life including health, aviation, solar power generation, and agriculture, among others. Given the hazards that this natural phenomena causes, it is imperative that societies are prepared for the onset of these storms to minimize economic loss and save lives. Utilizing the data received from Earth observation satellites, it is possible for atmospheric scientists to detect developing dust storms; however, even for experts, it can be difficult to detect dust storms in satellite images obscured by clouds, smoke, or nighttime conditions. Furthermore, manual detection requires atmospheric scientists to gather together the relevant satellite images, which takes time before a complete analysis can be made. The ability to automatically detect dust is potentially a large boon for the Earth science community.