New evidence for a long-term relationship between North Atlantic tropical cyclones and African dust outbreaks

It is well known that North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity varies strongly over time, and that summertime dust transport over the North Atlantic also varies from year to year. However, any connection between tropical cyclone activity and atmospheric dust (as mediated by the Saharan Air Layer) has been limited to observations made from a few case studies. Using 24–years of AVHRR atmospheric dust observations, a strong (inverse) correlation is seen between the interannual variability of tropical cyclones, and African dust outbreaks over the North Atlantic. While this cannot conclusively demonstrate a direct casual relationship between the two variables, there appears to be a strong link between tropical cyclone activity and dust transport over the Tropical North Atlantic.