Dust over the Black Sea

Dust over the Black Sea

Dust blows across Turkey’s arid interior and fans out over the Black Sea in this photo-like image taken on October 13, 2009. The thick dust obscures the eastern shoreline and hides the Georgian landscape. The large image, which covers a wider area, hints that at least some of the dust originated in Iraq. No distinct point source is visible in Turkey.

The image is from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. The large image provided above is at the sensor’s maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System.

NASA Earth Observatory image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.