On 16-17 October 2017, striking red and yellow skies were seen across Northern Europe, from the beaches of Brittany to the streets of Brussels. Speaking to journalists at the time, our BIRA-IASB colleague Sophie Vandenbussche, attributed the phenomena to Saharan dust swept north by Ophelia, the most easterly severe hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, her colleagues in France linked the unusual skies to another factor: smoke from wildfires raging in Spain and Portugal, also carried by the storm. The analyses were complementary: Ophelia’s winds carried both dust and wildfire smoke across Europe...
Complete article on the EUMETSAT website:
"On the trail of dust: Sophie Vandenbussche turns Metop observations into real-time and long-term insights into atmospheric particles and pollution"
