Dust Storm in Northern Africa

Dust Storm in Northern Africa

Dust remained in the air another day, two days after a major dust storm struck northern Africa on February 23, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite captured this image on February 25. By the time this image was acquired, the dust had moved toward the northeast over the Mediterranean Sea.

In this image, a pale beige cloud of dust several hundred kilometers across extends northward from Egypt over the sea. The dust cloud also completely obscures the view of the Nile Delta, in contrast to the dust cloud the day before. The thick cloud of dust lies close to the ground. On the island of Cyprus, the Troödos Mountains, including the 1,951-meter-high (6,400-foot-high) summit of Mount Olympos, rise above the dust cloud.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC