The Canary Islands are a archipelago of volcanic orgins just off the coast of some of the most active dust storm regions in Northwest Africa. The islands are the first landfall of the airborne Saharan dust and often blanketed by these aerosol during the spring and summer months.

We report on sunphotometer measurements of aerosol column optical depth during Aqua and Terra overpasses and in-situ size and number distributions taken in March 2003 during the ascent and descent of El Teide in the Canary Islands. The implications of our analyses of these measurements to Saharan dust aerosol transport through the cloud layers will be discussed.