Looking at the atmosphere

NASA released recently an animation where it's possible to see the atmosphere in the last 3 months, by tracking what is carried on the wind.

Tracking the aerosols

Aerosols are tiny particles carried by air around the globe, making visible weather patterns and other normally invisible physical processes.

In this visualization, NASA used satellites data combined with physics and meteorology to track three aerosols: dust, smoke, and sea salt, from July 31 to November 1, 2017, to reveal how these particles are transported, and how they can help track weather events.

- Sea salt is represented by blue color, is picked up by winds passing over the ocean;
When tropical storms and hurricanes form, the salt particles get concentrated into a spiral shape. It's possible then to follow hurricanes movements and see the interaction with Sahara dust.

- Sahara dust is represented in brown;

- Smoke is represented in white.
I find impressive the amount of smoke above Portugal during these 3 months, it's difficult to believe how we still have green patches not touched by fire.

As NASA says:

'Hurricane Ophelia was very unusual as it headed northeast, pulling in Saharan dust and smoke from wildfires in Portugal, carrying both to Ireland and the UK.'

My scientific understanding of these phenomena is pretty limited, but the worst fires we had in Portugal this year coincided with a larger amount of Sahara dust in the atmosphere above Portugal. I believe this might have helped to increase the temperatures and led to the worst fires in Portugal on 17th June and 15th October of 2017.

Nature is invincible

These mathematical models and simulations to represent nature help us, humans, to better understand the specific chemical, physical and biological processes that rule the planet Earth.

One can only expect to understand it and use that information to avoid to get injured by those hurricanes or wildfires.

source: NASA

Impressive indeed! The video is now widespread on the tv too. I guess Portuguese people and government are still trying to understand what happened to our forest and to justify that many deaths.

We don't need justifications here, IMO. It would be better to help those who survived first... :(

The government, insurance companies, and donations are already being offered to the surviving people.
I'm not sure though if the portuguese people understand what really happened.
I believe it can be repeated again, as it is a result of many years of misleading forest management that was "perfectly" combined with extraordinary climatic conditions.

It is good to understand what happened, to be sure to be more prepared for the next one (hopefully there won't be any). However, as I said, this should not be the priority number 1 at the moment: people first).

You're totally right, people must be priority number 1.

Guess as a vegetation ecologist I'm more prone to look to what happened and what can be done from now on to avoid a similar result. That's my main worry at the moment, and yes, I'm angry because I believe this could be avoided.

I understand that, and you are right to be angry!

Very impressive indeed! :)

Thank you for sharing :) @liliana.duarte

Most welcome! I love this kind of stuff that helps to understand how insignificant we humans are comparing to the nature!

your post was curated by @coolcurator , the coolest curator on the blockchain. Suggestion: Replace "My scientific understanding of these phenomena ARE pretty limited" by "My scientific understanding of these phenomena IS pretty limited"

Thank you a lot for your suggestion, I've changed it already, I hate to misspell!