Harmattan

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the Maemo operating system version with the code name Harmattan see Maemo .

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The Harmattan (to Harmatta , 'haze time' in a language on the Guinea coast) is a continental wind system of North Africa that blows as a northeast trade wind between 10 ° and about 20 ° north latitude. Generally it blows all year round in the arid regions of the Sahara . From the Western Sahara to over the Cape Verde Islands , the Harmattan large quantities leads desert dust and sand with it, great as dust clouds can be seen on satellite images.

The harmattan occurs mainly in the dry season and in the boreal winter (December to around March) in the regions of the Sahel and Sudan , where it is replaced by the southwest monsoon in the summer months. Regions in which the harmattan can be measured almost all year round are the Bodélé Depression , the mountain regions of the Aïr , Tibesti and the Djado plateau , the Ténéré and Grand Erg du Bilma deserts .

As a result of wind abrasion processes inland, loose sediments are carried into the Atlantic by the Harmattan . This transport of Saharan dust leads through the trade wind drift to the Amazon basin of South America, where it makes an important contribution to natural atmospheric fertilization.

See also

• Winch and wind systems

Web links

Wiktionary: Harmattan  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Löhle: Visual observations from the meteorological standpoint. Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin 1941, p. 47 ff (reprint Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 9783642992483 ; limited preview in the Google book search).