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Offshore transport of blowing dust from southern Argentina

By Scott Bachmeier •

10-minute GOES-19 daytime True Color RGB and nighttime Dust RGB images, from 1200 UTC on 17 November to 0710 UTC on 18 November [click to play animated GIF]

10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-19 (GOES-East) daytime True Color RGB + nighttime Dust RGB images — created using Geo2Grid (above) showed the offshore transport of significant amounts of blowing dust from the Patagonia region of southern Argentina on 17-18 November 2025.

A slightly longer period of GOES-19 Dust RGB images (below) displayed the plume of airborne dust (brighter shades of magenta) as it arced eastward then southward across the southern Atlantic Ocean.

10-minute GOES-19 Dust RGB images, from 1100 UTC on 17 November to 1500 UTC on 18 November [click to play animated GIF]

The airborne dust also exhibited a similar magenta signature in Nighttime Microphysics RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below).

10-minute GOES-19 daytime True Color RGB and Nighttime Microphysics RGB images, from 1200 UTC on 17 November to 0700 UTC on 18 November [click to play MP4 animation]

Strong boundary layer winds  — which lofted the areas of blowing dust — developed in the wake of a cold front associated with a low pressure system that was deepening off the coast of Argentina (below).

12-hour surface analyses, from 0000 UTC on 17 November to 1200 UTC on 18 November [click to play animated GIF]

There was a wind gust to 75 kts (86 mph) at METAR site SAVC at 1500 UTC — and for several hours leading up to that time, blowing dust had reduced the surface visibility to less than 1 mile at that airport (below).

Cursor sample of the Comodoro, Argentina (SAVC) METAR at 1500 UTC on 17 November [click to enlarge]


Time series of surface observation data at Comodoro, Argentina (SAVC) from 1000-2200 UTC on 17 November [click to enlarge]

5 hours later there was a wind gust to 61 kts (70 mph) at METAR site SAVT at 2000 UTC — and just before that time, blowing dust reduced the surface visibility to about 1 mile at that airport (below).

Cursor sample of the Trelew Almirante, Argentina (SAVT) METAR at 2000 UTC on 17 November [click to enlarge]

Time series of surface observation data at Trelew Almirante, Argentina (SAVT) from 0600 UTC on 17 November to 0000 UTC on 18 November [click to enlarge]

Categories: Air quality, Geo2Grid, GOES-19, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images