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Letters to Nature
Nature 214, 585 (6 May 1967) | doi:10.1038/214585a0; Received 3 April 1967
Electrical Effects of the Harmattan Dust Storms
D. J. HARRIS
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Northern Nigeria.
Abstract
EACH year, from December to March, an area of a million square miles or so in West Africa is periodically subjected to a very dry dust-laden atmosphere (the Harmattan), which rises in the Sahara desert and is carried south by winds from that area. The dust particles are thought to consist predominantly of quartz, with diameters of the region 0.1–1
, and the dust layers are known to rise to heights in excess of 10,000 ft. Visibility can be reduced to less than a mile and the intensity of the radiation from the Sun is severely reduced at the surface of the Earth.
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