Dust over the Caspian Sea

Dust over the Caspian Sea

Tendrils of dust blew westward across the Caspian Sea on September 26, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the area on the same day.

In this image, two plumes of dust appear. The larger, fainter plume stretches across the body of water, part of it curling back toward the northeast midway through its journey. The smaller, thicker plume of dust blows off the Cheleken Peninsula toward the northwest. Inland from this peninsula, Turkmenistan sports substantial sand seas, but this dust plume appears to originate closer to shore as the skies over Turkmenistan appear clear.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this region.