Dust Plume over Iraq and Saudi Arabia

Dust Plume over Iraq and Saudi Arabia

A dust plume hovered over the Middle East in early June 2008. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on June 3, 2008. In this natural-color image, the dust plume appears as a long arc of beige that curves slightly over the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The origin of the plume is not obvious in this image, but both Saudi Arabia and Iraq consist primarily of desert landscapes where dust storms readily arise.

NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.