Dust Plume Properties in the Vicinity of the Bodele Depression

North Africa is the largest dust producer in the world. During the summer, dust storms moving off the coast of Africa and over the tropical Atlantic Ocean can potentially impact the formation of tropical storms in the early Fall. An active dust source is the Bodele depression in Chad (Central Africa). Here, we examine the characteristics of dust plumes (speed and height) from around the Chad region using images obtained by orbital path 186 (blocks 76-80) from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). The data was analyzed through line-by-line wind-direction-reliant digitization based on the MISR Interactive eXplorer (MINX) software. This method relies on the parallax effect provided by the stereo images taken by 9 satellite cameras to determine heights. The data was analyzed for the month of August, from 2000-2011. Our results show that the August dust plumes over this region appear to be climatologically calm in that the plume speed is of a few meters per second and the resulting plume height is nearly confined to within the first 200 meters above the terrain height. This study is an extension of some previous digitization work using the MINX software. At present, results are being processed for the other months to develop a more complete year-round climatology of the dust characteristics in this region.