Arizona State University has launched a system to measure and categorize dust storm severity in the Phoenix area.
The Phoenix Dust Storm Scale will use atmospheric data to rank storm severity primarily on dust concentration. It also ranks different subcategories like wind speed and the area covered by a storm.
It categorizes severity similarly to the hurricane scale, with category 5 the most severe.
The online dashboard is based on a study published late last year in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
ASU professor Ryan Heintzman is a study co-author.
“It's kind of a way to help raise awareness for the general public in terms of just, you know, what these dust events are, some of the concerns and safety associated with dust," Heintzman said.
Heintzman says the scale will also provide meteorologists a way to study broader dust storm patterns.
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