Yellow Dust

Forgive me for not remembering if I've already written about the yellow dust (aka yellow sand or Asian dust), but I recall complaining frequently about the air quality here in Korea.  Seoul is cleaning up its act as a polluted city and the air quality is improving, but in the farmlands where we live we can't escape the field burning in Spring and Fall.  Despite what it's doing to the air quality I'm not completely bothered by field burning because I love the smell of camp fire- I think I'd wear it as a perfume!  Yellow dust is a major bother though and a health risk for some.

Here's a modified Wikipedia article on what yellow dust is:

Asian Dust is a seasonal meteorological phenomenon which affects much of East Asia sporadically during the springtime months. The dust originates in the deserts of China and Mongolia where high-speed surface winds and intense dust storms kick up dense clouds of fine, dry soil particles. These clouds are then carried eastward by prevailing winds and pass over China, Korea, and Japan. Sometimes, the airborne particulates are carried much further, in significant concentrations which affect air quality as far east as the U.S.

In the last decade or so, it has become a serious problem due to the increase of industrial pollutants contained in the dust and intensified desertification (deforestation) in China causing longer and more frequent occurrences.

Areas affected by the dust experience decreased visibility and the dust is known to cause a variety of health problems, not limited to sore throat and asthma in otherwise healthy people. Often, people are advised to avoid or minimize outdoor activities, depending on severity of storms.

The dust storms also affect wildlife particularly hard, destroying crops, habitat, and toxic metals interfering with reproduction.  Coral are hit particularly hard. Toxic metals propagate up the food chain, i.e. from fish to higher mammals. Air visibility is reduced, including canceled flights, ground travel, outdoor activities, and can be correlated to significant loss of economic activity. Japan has reported washed clothes stained yellow.  Korea Times has reported it costing 3 million won (US $3,000), 6000 gallons of water, and 6 hours to simply clean one jumbo jet.

I just read a report about how this Spring the yellow dust levels are forecast to be the worst in decades due to severe droughts in the Gobi desert and surrounding areas.  We watch the yellow sand levels periodically but so far this Spring we've only had a few instances of  "moderate hazard" storms and no "high hazards".  If we have a particularly bad yellow dust storm I'll take some pictures to share- from last years' experience I would describe it as being an extremely polluted haze and the sky really does have a yellow tint, although on the plus side it makes for spectacular sunrises and sunsets.  Makes me really miss the fresh air in the Northwest!