SAN DIEGO, April 19 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led international team of scientists will study plumes of airborne dust and pollutants that originate in Asia and move across North America.
The researchers want to determine the impact of the plumes, which are so great in scope they might affect clouds and weather conditions across thousands of miles.
Known as PACDEX -- Pacific Dust Experiment -- the project will be led by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
The first mission is to be launched this month, depending on weather patterns in Asia.
"PACDEX comes at a crucial time in our efforts to understand the regional impacts of global warming," said V. Ramanathan, a PACDEX principal investigator. "It will also help us examine how the dust and soot modifies storm tracks and cloud systems across the Pacific, which influence North American weather patterns in major ways."
The study will also involve scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Japanese National Institute for Environmental Studies, Lanzhou University and Peking University in China and Seoul National University in South Korea.
