A thick plume of Saharan Desert dust blew toward the northeast over Algeria and Tunisia and across the Mediterranean Sea on February 22, 2004. The dust was so thick it almost completely obscured the view of the surface in this true-color image acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. The path of the dust storm carried it directly over the island of Sicily and Italy’s southern mainland. The tan color of the dust makes it easy to distinguish from the much brighter, white clouds in the scene.
The high-resolution copy of the image above is 500 meters per pixel. This scene is also available at additional resolutions.
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
