Sydney dust blanket causes highest air pollution on record
source: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydney-dust-blanket-causes-highest-air-pollution-on-record...
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The dusty blanket that wrapped itself around Sydney this morning pushed air pollution levels to 1500 times their normal levels - the highest on record, a climate scientist says.
Sydneysiders woke to a red dawn this morning as a thick dust storm caused havoc with transport and raised health fears.
The size of the dust cloud surprised weather experts, who say it has covered half of NSW.
Dr John Leys, principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Climate Change and Water, said initial estimates showed the dust plume stretched 600 kilometres along the NSW coast from Sydney to the Queensland border this morning, dumping up to 75,000 tonnes of dust per hour into the Tasman Sea.
"It's travelled about 1500 kilometres to get to Sydney," Dr Leys said.
Chris Eiser, manager of atmospheric science at the department, said measurements taken in Sydney today showed the highest level of particle concentration on record.
A normal day would see around 10 micrograms of particles per cubic metre of air and a bushfire might generate 500 micrograms.
Today, levels soared to 15,400 micrograms per cubic metre of air at one location.
"During a dust storm, that’s when we get our highest levels historically and this is the highest we’ve measured in Sydney," Mr Eiser said.
Bureau of Meteorology regional director Barry Hanstrum said it was unusual to see such a wide area covered by dust.
"It's a very unusual event to see a blanket of thick dust like this cover such a large area of NSW," Mr Hanstrum said.
"We see [dust storms] fairly regularly but what we don't see is dust this thick make it across to the coast.
Sydneysiders woke to a red dawn this morning as a thick dust storm caused havoc with transport and raised health fears.
The size of the dust cloud surprised weather experts, who say it has covered half of NSW.
Dr John Leys, principal research scientist with the NSW Department of Climate Change and Water, said initial estimates showed the dust plume stretched 600 kilometres along the NSW coast from Sydney to the Queensland border this morning, dumping up to 75,000 tonnes of dust per hour into the Tasman Sea.
"It's travelled about 1500 kilometres to get to Sydney," Dr Leys said.
Chris Eiser, manager of atmospheric science at the department, said measurements taken in Sydney today showed the highest level of particle concentration on record.
A normal day would see around 10 micrograms of particles per cubic metre of air and a bushfire might generate 500 micrograms.
Today, levels soared to 15,400 micrograms per cubic metre of air at one location.
"During a dust storm, that’s when we get our highest levels historically and this is the highest we’ve measured in Sydney," Mr Eiser said.
Bureau of Meteorology regional director Barry Hanstrum said it was unusual to see such a wide area covered by dust.
"It's a very unusual event to see a blanket of thick dust like this cover such a large area of NSW," Mr Hanstrum said.
"We see [dust storms] fairly regularly but what we don't see is dust this thick make it across to the coast.
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