Atmospheric dust emission hotspots and climate variables for Etosha Pan, Namibia (2017-2022)

CSV file containing records of dust emission events (count of dust days), spatial extents (km²) of emissive 'hotspot' surfaces (source points of frequent dust plume events), and climatological variables across Etosha Pan, Namibia for the period of November 2017-2022. Dust days were quantified by visual detection of plume events from MODIS Terra/Aqua and MSG-SEVIRI satellite time series data. Dust emission hotspot extents were quantified from analysis of Landsat 8-9 OLI satellite imagery. Climate variables including: Surface (2 m) air temperature (degrees C), 2 m dew point temperature (degrees C) surface pressure (kPa), potential evaporation (mm), and 10 m horizontal (u) and vertical (v) wind components (m/s) were derived using ERA5-Land climate reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Relative humidity (RH, in %) was calculated from 2 m air temperature (𝑡) and 2 m dew point temperature (t_d) using the revised Magnus (1844) formula: RH = 100 × ((e^(β × t_d) / (λ + t_d)) / (e^(β × t) / (λ + t))), where 𝛽 = 17.625 and 𝜆 = 243.04 °C, with temperatures in degrees Celsius. Calculated 𝑢 and 𝑣 vector components were corrected with relevant off-set and scaling factors, from which wind speed (ws = \sqrt{u² + v²}, in m s-1) was calculated. Precipitation totals (mm) were derived from the GPM-IMERG satellite gridded product, accessed via the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (disc.gsfc.nasa.gov).