Dust plumes blew over southwestern Asia at the end of May 2011. On May 31, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of dust plumes blowing over the borders of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
The thickest plume originates in eastern Iran. The opaque plume blows toward the south-southeast, passing over parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. To the east, another plume blows in the same direction. Farther east (upper right quadrant of the image), a camel-colored, unevenly shaped plume appears to float over Afghanistan.
Dust plumes in this region often originate from dry lakebed sediments along the Iran-Afghanistan border, and from sandy deserts in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
