Dust Blowing over the Red Sea

Dust Blowing over the Red Sea

An immense dust storm was blowing over the Red Sea from East Africa on June 21, 2003. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Aqua satellite shows a thick cloud of desert dust shrouding (top left to bottom) Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. The thick plume stretches across the Red Sea (center) and breaks like a wave across the shores of Saudi Arabia and Yemen (top and bottom right).

The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.

Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC