**4. Dust storms in the southern part of Ukraine**

The dust storm plume fixed in the central regions of the European part of the troposphere was observed on the space images dated 24 March, 2007 (**Figure 2**).

It turned out that that headwaters of this dust storm point out to the south of Ukraine. The wind currents of 30 m/s speed lifted up huge masses of the surface soils. The dust plume trajectory went through the territories of the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, and Germany. The solid particles concentration in that plume was between 200 and 1400 μg/m3 . The MODIS image analysis proved that the origin of dust plume was in the Kherson oblast, close to the Kakhovsky water reservoir. Huge masses of dust were lifted up in the air from the territory of 20,000 km2 area under arable lands. The wind speed reached up to 25 m/s [15]. This unusually high wind speed together with the preceding of a 2-week drought and lack of vegetation caused that dust storm in March 2007. It has to be noticed that until quite recently, the Sahara desert was considered to be the main source of transboundary transfer of mineral

**Figure 2.** Dust storm in the region of the Kakhovske water reservoir, EOS/MODIS, 23.03.2007.

dust to Central Europe. Dust from the Sahara desert is transferred with windblast into the Central Europe several times per year. The solid particles concentration in the dust plume in the south of Germany is made up on the average 280 μg/m3 . According to the monitoring data from the "Borna" station in Germany, the concentration of solid particles from the Ukrainian dust reached 640 μg/m3 . As it is obvious, this value exceeded the African plume parameters by two times.

Up to 70 tons of soils per hectare and per hour is blown away during the dust storms. The storm of March, 2007 was not an extraordinary phenomenon for the south of Ukraine. It is known that in the early 1950s, the countermeasures were taken to prevent the wind erosion spread. The wind protective forest strips were planted on more than 440,000 hectares in all the natural zones of Ukraine [16].

Until recently, the soil dust natural particles were traditionally considered as harmless for the human health. But new research proved chronic bronchitis happened quite frequently in farmers [17] or increase of respiratory diseases in population residing in the territories of Karakalpak (Uzbekistan) [18], that is. in regions with the similar conditions described for the south of Ukraine.
