Saharan dust: sources and trajectories

The Sahara is the world's largest source of aeolian desert dust, but precis e information on specific sources of this material is poor and sometimes co ntradictory. This paper uses daily data from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectr ometer (TOMS) for 1999 to identify source areas for major dust events and t heir trajectories of long-range transport. Two major source areas are ident ified: the Bodele depression and an area covering eastern Mauritania, weste rn Mali and southern Algeria. Both of these major dust sources are primaril y driven by natural factors since they are little affected by anthropogenic activities.