“Godzilla,” the Extreme African Dust Event of June 2020: Origins, Transport, and Impact on Air Quality in the Greater Caribbean Basin
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In June 2020, the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean Basin were affected by a series of African dust outbreaks unprecedented in size and intensity. These events, informally named “Godzilla,” coincided with CALIMA, a large field campaign, offering a rare opportunity to assess the impact of African dust on air quality in the Greater Caribbean Basin. Network measurements of respirable particles (i.e., PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) showed that dust significantly degraded regional air quality and increased the risk to public health in the Caribbean, the southern United States, northern South America, and Central America. CALIMA examined the meteorological context of Godzilla dust events over North Africa and how these conditions might relate to the greatly increased dust emissions and enhanced transport to the Americas. Godzilla was linked to strong pressure anomalies over West Africa, resulting in a large-scale geostrophic wind anomaly at 700 hPa over North Africa. We used surface-based and columnar measurements to test the performance of two frequently used aerosol forecast models: the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) and Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) models. The models showed some skills but differed substantially between their forecasts, suggesting large uncertainties in these forecasts that are critical for issuing early warnings of health-threatening dust events. Our results demonstrate the value of an integrated approach in characterizing the spatial and temporal variability of African dust transport and assessing its impact on regional air quality. Future studies are needed to improve models and to track the long-term changes in dust transport from Africa under a changing climate.
Authors: O. L. Mayol-Bracero, J. M. Prospero, B. Sarangi, E. Andrews, P. R. Colarco, E. Cuevas, L. Di Girolamo, R. D. Garcia, C. Gaston, B. Holben, L. A. Ladino, P. León, R. Losno, O. Martínez, B. L. Martínez-Huertas, P. Méndez-Lázaro, J. Molinie, F. Muller-Karger, D. Otis, G. Raga, A. Reyes, J. Rosas Nava, D. Rosas, A. Sealy, I. Serikov, D. Tong, E. Torres-Delgado, H. Yu, P. Zuidema
Institutions: Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Miami, University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Université Paris Cité, NOAA National Weather Service, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico System, Laboratoire de Recherche en Géosciences et Energies, Université des Antilles, University of South Florida, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, Autonomous University of Yucatán, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, George Mason University
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4410370710