Dust Storm in Egypt

Dust Storm in Egypt

A dust storm blew out of Egypt and over the Mediterranean Sea on January 29, 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image the same day.

Spanning hundreds of kilometers, the dust plume extends from Egypt across the Mediterranean Sea, dissipating off the coast of Lebanon. On its journey from Egypt’s interior, the dust passes over Cairo and the Nile Delta. Source points for the plume aren’t apparent in this image, but the dust may have originated in Egypt’s Western Desert.

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