Dust Storm over the Persian Gulf

Dust Storm over the Persian Gulf

A dust storm blew over the Persian Gulf in mid-August 2008. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on August 14, 2008, during the second consecutive day of dust storm activity.

In this image, skies appear clear over Iraq, but a discernible plume of dust blows toward the southeast, over the Persian Gulf, toward Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The dust mingles with wispy clouds east of Qatar. The dust may have arisen from Iraq’s Tigris and Euphrates floodplain the previous day.

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.