Dust storms cloud North Africa’s clean air ambitions

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Across North Africa, countries are investing heavily in solar energy, attracted by some of the highest solar irradiance levels in the world. But dust storms, a persistent environmental feature of the region are harming these ambitions.

The storms, a mainstay of the Sahara’s vast desert landscapes, are increasingly affecting the performance and cost of solar power.

“Dust reduces the solar radiation reaching panels, and increases the soiling effect,” says Hamdi Hached of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Tunisia. “This lowers productivity and raises the cost of cleaning and maintenance.”

During severe events, dust deposition can reduce photovoltaic output by 20% to 40%, according to Panagiotis Kosmopoulos, of the National Observatory of Athens. For large scale projects, these losses translate into significant operational and financial costs,

Jauad El Kharraz, co-chair of the Mediterranean Clean Energy Network, says dust storms are growing operational challenge for solar expansion across North Africa and the Sahara belt. As capacity expands, he says, developers will need to invest in mitigation measures, including automated cleaning systems, improved panel technologies and more precise environmental monitoring.

This reflects a broader shift. Dust storms are no longer only a feature of desert environments. They are becoming a factor in how energy systems perform, how cities function and how economies plan for the future.

Each year, an estimated two billion tonnes of mineral dust are lifted into the atmosphere, much of it from the Sahara. This dust influences weather systems, fertilises distant ecosystems and alters the Earth’s energy balance.

Closer to home, its effects are becoming visible as land degradation intensifies and pressure on natural resources grows.

A shifting system

As vegetation declines under pressure from drought, overgrazing and unsustainable land use, soils become more exposed and easier to erode. “Dust storms are often a visible symptom of land degradation,” says Mohamed Tawfik, a professor at Sohag University in Egypt. When soils dry out and lose structure, winds can lift fine particles more easily into the atmosphere.

The relationship with climate change is less straightforward. https://docs.un.org/en/A/RES/78/314 A recent study on dust trends in North Africa points to a complex interaction between atmospheric circulation, rainfall patterns and land conditions, rather than a simple increase.1

Satellite records since the 1980s show regional variation. In parts of the Sahel, vegetation recovery has been linked to reduced dust emissions. In other areas, rising temperatures and more frequent droughts appear to trigger intense, but short-lived dust outbreaks.

“There is a signal, but it is not as clear as it is for temperature or rainfall,” says Kosmopoulos. Limited observational records and sparse ground-based measurements continue to thwart understanding. Climate models also struggle to capture the interactions between soil, vegetation and atmospheric processes.

From desert to city

When dust reaches urban areas, it also becomes an immediate health concern.

Cities such as Algiers, Cairo, Casablanca and Tunis regularly experience sharp increases in particulate pollution during dust events. A regional study found that desert dust contributes significantly to airborne particulate mattter across North Africa, often pushing levels beyond recommended health limits.2

The risks increase when natural dust mixes with emissions from traffic and industry, creating a combination of mineral particles and chemical pollutants.

“These cities already faee significant pollution,” says Tawfik. “When Saharan dust mixes with these emissions, particulate concentrations can rise sharply.”

Watching from space

Satellite observations have become central to understanding and managing dust storms.

Remote sensing data, which is typically collected from satellites, aircraft and drones. allow researchers to track dust plumes in near real time, identifying where they form and how they move. These observations help improve forecasts, refine climate models, and support early-warning systems.

“Dust storms across North Africa are part of a complex Earth system linking land degradation, climate variability and atmospheric circulation,” says Essam Heggy, a research scientist at the University of Southern California, and an affiliate of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Satellite data show Saharan dust travels across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes reaching the Caribbean and the Amazon. Integrating these observations with ground-based measurements will be important for improving preparedness for extreme events, Heggy says.

A global footprint

Although dust storms originate mainly in desert environments, their effects extend far beyond.

As particles travel across continents and oceans, they interact with sunlight, clouds and marine systems. One study shows that Saharan dust often mixes with sea spray during transatlantic transport, altering its physical and chemical properties.3

Another analysis found that dust intrusions affect air quality and solar radiation across southern Europe for a significant number of days each year.4

Dust also transports nutrients that support ecosystems far from the Sahara. At the same time, these storms can degrade air quality, disrupt transport systems and influence weather patterns.

“Once airborne, these particles interact with sunlight and clouds in ways that alter the Earth’s energy balance, cooling the surface in some regions while warming the atmosphere in others,” Kosmopoulos says.

Rising stakes

For communities across North Africa and the Sahel, the consequences are immediate, however.

“Environmental stress directly affects livelihoods,” says Tawfik. Desertification, drought and intensifying dust storms can weaken agriculture and reduce productivity.

As climate pressures increase and land-use demands grow, scientists warn that the frequency, intensity and reach of dust storms could expand in the coming decades.

The United Nations has designated 2025 to 2034 as the Decade on Combating Sand and Dust Storms, reflecting the scale of the challenge.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d44148-026-00098-9

References

1. Yeo K., Oluleye A., Yoroba F. et al. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 130, e2025JD043630 (2025).

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