Dust over the Caspian Sea

Dust over the Caspian Sea

Tendrils of dust blew over the Caspian Sea on September 4, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. By the time this image was acquired, dust had blown over the Caspian Sea for a few days, but on September 4, two tendrils formed distinct swirls over the water. Also shown in this image is thick sediment in the water, indicated by the blue-green color along the sea’s eastern shore. It is possible that the same winds that blew the dust overhead blew some sediment into the water, but the sediment might have also been transported via the Atrak River, which runs along the Turkmenistan-Iran border.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this region.