Dust blew off the coast of Libya and over the Mediterranean Sea on April 1, 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. The dust plumes appear to originate southwest of the coastal mountain range known as Al Jabal al Akhdar. The green hues in the mountains attest to a relatively moist local climate influenced by the nearby sea, but inland from the mountains, the land is arid and prone to producing dust. Roughly 95 percent of Libya is desert.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
