Dust Storm over the Red Sea

Dust Storm over the Red Sea

Dust continued blowing over the Red Sea for the third straight day on July 16, 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. As dust plumes from Sudan blew over the Red Sea, curving toward the southeast before reaching Saudi Arabia, smaller dust plumes blew northeastward off the coast of Somalia and over the Gulf of Aden. The dust blowing from Sudan appears to arise near the coast. Clouds obscure much of Somalia, however, making it difficult to tell whether the dust blowing off that coast originated near the shore or farther inland.

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