Sahara dust cooling North Atlantic

GREENBELT, Md., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say dust from the Sahara Desert was responsible for one-third of the drop in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures between 2005 and 2006.

Seasonal dust storms may have contributed to the difference in hurricane activity between the two years, NASA said Friday in a release.

Images captured last November by an instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite shows Saharan dust blowing off the west coast of Africa and over the Canary Islands.

The report said heat from warm ocean surfaces is known to fuel hurricanes, leading to stronger and more frequent storms. In 2006, sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic remained relatively cool and the season saw only five hurricanes, compared to 15 hurricanes in 2005 when the ocean surface was warmer.

NASA scientists William Lau and Kyu-Myong Kim said airborne Saharan dust over the Atlantic blocked sunlight from reaching the ocean surface.

The findings, published in the the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters, provides the first quantitative estimate of dust's role in cooling the entire North Atlantic and brings attention to dust as a potentially important influence on hurricane activities, NASA said.