Dust Over the Arabian Sea

Dust Over the Arabian Sea

A thin plume of dust hovered over the Arabian Sea on October 15, 2008, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead.

In this photo-like image, the dust appears as a translucent plume of tan swirling over the ocean. The source of the dust is not immediately obvious in this image, but the tiny plumes of dust blowing southward off the coast of Pakistan suggest that the larger plume also originated in that country. Aside from a spray of diminutive clouds east of the plume, little else fills the sky in this image. Along the Indian coastline, sediments color the ocean water green-brown.

NASA image created by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.