For this week’s guided exercise will be using the NASA World View tool. On the 16th October 2017 an orange haze and ‘red sun’ could be experienced in parts of Europe, including the UK and France, due to wildfires in Portugal and Spain, and dust in the Sahara being carried along by winds from Hurricane Ophelia.

Task

1. Open NASA World View here

2. Go to ‘Add Layers’ and under ‘Hazard and Disaster’ tab choose ‘Dust Storms’, then ‘Aerosol Optical Depth’. On the left-hand side choose ‘Suomi NPP/OMPS’, then tick the box for ‘Aerosol Index’. Once you have done this, close the pop-up box by clicking the x.

3. Select the date at the bottom as October 15th, 2017, can you see where the high amounts of Aerosols are (shown in bright yellow and red). Now move the date to the 16th through to the 18th and focus on Europe. Can you see the movement of aerosols?

4. You can also go to ‘Fires’ and then ‘Fires and Thermal Anomalies’ to add a layer on showing active fires. You will now be able to spot the source more easily, of the aerosols that were coming from the wildfires in Portugal and Spain.

5. Can you spot any other similar events to this? Such as the red haze in Crete, Greece on 22nd March 2018.

You can take the end of week test by clicking on the test button located on the top-right.