Project Desert Storm
Anna Ridley, Charlotte Brumby, Ben Newsome, Kanwarnain Singh
Deserts cover 33 % of the Earths total land surface1. The largest desert is the Sahara, 9 million km2,
covering most of Northern Africa in 12 countries (Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania,
Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara). The Western Sahara is the smallest of the
countries of which the Sahara desert occupies, at 266 000 km2 and a population of 500 000. Deserts
have a huge influence on the climate and weather systems within the Earth’s atmosphere. There are a
number of ways by which deserts influence weather systems, including the dust generated from the
sands of the desert, affecting clouds, precipitation, temperature and albedo.
This research will be looking into the influence of altering the surface of large areas of desert within the
Sahara desert. There are a number of ways in which altering the surface could influence the weather,
and so only a number of these will be studied initially. These will be the temperature, dust and rainfall.
There are a number of methods by which these can be measured, which are outlined below.
The surface of the desert will be altered by a covering over an area of 10 000 km2 with Aluminium Super
Shielding (ASS).
Figure 1: Location – Sahara desert (North Africa)
Figure 2: Aluminium Super Shielding
Measurements
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Temperature
o Satellite data (Meteosat satellite – geostationary)
o Ground based measurements spread across 10 sites over the country
o FAAM aircraft temperature sensors
Dust
o CCN counter on FAAM
o Optical Particle Sizing
o Differential Mobility Sizing
o Condensation Particle Counter
Rainfall
o Radar data
Personnel
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1 Prof.
100 local farmers
3 aircraft research students
Instrumentation
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100 tractors
Ground based temperature probes
FAAM
Costing
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Aluminium Super Shielding (ASS) – 2.7 x 106 Ton required @ $2000/metric Ton = $5 billion2
Farmers income @ $6 / day for 100 farmers for 1 year = $219 000
Satellite time
Aircraft flight time
Main Challenges
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Sourcing of Aluminium Super Shielding
Laying of Aluminium Super Shielding
Exact location selection
Future work
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Lightning
Clouds
Albedo / refractive index
References
1.
2.
http://www.universetoday.com/65639/what-percentage-of-the-earths-land-surface-is-desert/
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/636781822/China_factory_price_industrial_aluminum_foil.html