GATE: On-the-Job Training for a Life Chasing African Dust Clouds

My objective in GATE was to characterize the conditions associated with the transport of mineral dust aerosols across the African coast to the Atlantic. A major focus was on the role of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) in this transport and its relationship to synoptic meteorology, especially Easterly Waves. My GATE program followed on the work that Carlson and Prospero had done in 1969 at Barbados in BOMEX where the SAL was first characterized. Unfortunately, in the 1970s, there was little appreciation of the role that aerosols play in climate, least of all, African dust. Consequently, in GATE my program had a low priority. Also, my aerosol system was installed on the NOAA DC 6 which had operational limitations. As a result, I never got to carry out a dedicated dust-oriented flight. Thus, my GATE funding, my first substantial grant, was a failure.

Nonetheless, GATE was important to my future professional development. I learned about meteorology in a hands-on, real-time way. (My Ph.D. was in the field of nuclear chemistry.) I also saw the utility of the early satellite products which would become increasingly important in my career. I had the unique opportunity to meet many prominent scientists who had an interest in Africa, tropical Atlantic meteorology, and climate. In short, GATE served as on-the-job training for outsiders like me.

Following GATE, I developed an Atlantic aerosol network that extended from the equator to the Arctic Circle. This enabled me to map out the temporal and spatial variability of African mineral dust over the region. In particular, the Barbados studies, which continue to this day, show the strong impact of climate variability on dust transport especially during the African droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. Despite my failure in GATE, the intensity of the dust events observed in Dakar made an impression on GATE participants, some of whom would later become supporters of dust research. After GATE, I never lacked funding.

Today, many of the issues that I had planned to study in GATE are of great interest because of concerns about climate. I will briefly highlight some of these issues.