Dust blowing off Namibia

Dust blowing off Namibia

Tendrils of dust swept off the west coast of Namibia and spread over the Atlantic in early July 2005. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite took this picture on July 10, 2005.

In this image, faint plumes of dust that stretch over several hundred kilometers blow in a southwesterly direction off the coast. To the north and east of the dust is the Etosha Pan, a low expanse of land filled with clay, silt, and mineral salts. In this image it appears as a white rectangular shape.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team.