Dust Sweeps across the Arabian Sea

Dust Sweeps across the Arabian Sea

Strong winds swept large plumes of dust (tan pixels) off the southern coasts of Iran and Pakistan south and eastward across the Arabian Sea on February 9, 2004. The black line running vertically through the top center of this scene shows the border between Iran and Pakistan; the easternmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula juts in to the left center of the image.

This true-color image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. Another image was acquired a few hours later that same day by MODIS aboard the Aqua. The high-resolution image above is 500 meters per pixel, but both images are available at the sensor’s full resolution of 250 meters per pixel.

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC