A dust storm blew across Australia’s Northern Territory and Queensland on October 26, 2009, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. This true-color image shows the dust plume traveling eastward across the border between the Australian states. In Northern Territory, the dust passes south of Newcastle Waters. In Queensland, the plume skirts a cluster of fires—roughly marked by red outlines—that send their smoke plumes northward.
Sandy deserts stretch across the central region of Australia’s of Northern Territory, and the dust plume that arose in late October likely originated from such an area in the western part of Northern Territory.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott, NASA Earth Observatory.
