3-D View Tracks Saharan Dust to the Amazon | Science Video

399 views · Published 25 February 2015 · 2:14 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: CoconutScienceLab · 2015 · Science & Technology

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More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - using data collected by NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite, from 2007 though 2013, scientists have quantified how much dust from the Sahara Desert reaches the Amazon rainforest each year.

This dust includes phosphorus, an essential nutrient that acts like a fertilizer, which the Amazon depends on in order to flourish.

On average, 27.7 million tons of dust per year – enough to fill 104,980 semi trucks – falls to the surface in the Amazon basin. The phosphorus portion, an estimated 22,000 tons per year, is about the same amount as that lost from rain and flooding.

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