In meteorology, they act as the steering flow for tropical storms that form over the Atlantic, Pacific, and southern Indian oceans and cause rainfall in North America, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar and East Africa.
When dust from the Sahara travels over land, rainfall is suppressed and the sky changes from a blue to a white appearance which leads to an increase in red sunsets.
[1] The term originally derives from the early fourteenth century sense of trade (in late Middle English) still often meaning "path" or "track".
[5] During the Age of Sail, the pattern of prevailing winds made various points of the globe easy or difficult to access, and therefore had a direct effect on European empire-building and thus on modern political geography.
[12] The surface air that flows from these subtropical high-pressure belts toward the Equator is deflected toward the west in both hemispheres by the Coriolis effect.
[22] When the trade winds are weaker, more extensive areas of rain fall upon landmasses within the tropics, such as Central America.
[23] During mid-summer in the Northern Hemisphere (July), the westward-moving trade winds south of the northward-moving subtropical ridge expand northwestward from the Caribbean Sea into southeastern North America (Florida and Gulf Coast).
When dust from the Sahara moving around the southern periphery of the ridge travels over land, rainfall is suppressed and the sky changes from a blue to a white appearance which leads to an increase in red sunsets.
[1] Although the Southeast US has some of the cleanest air in North America, much of the African dust that reaches the United States affects Florida.
[26] Every year, millions of tons of nutrient-rich Saharan dust cross the Atlantic Ocean, bringing vital phosphorus and other fertilizers to depleted Amazon soils.