Saharan Dust Plume

Saharan Dust Plume

Saharan dust blew off the west coast of Africa and over the Atlantic on July 16, 2007. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, the dust forms a thick plume of tan that mingles with white clouds over the ocean. After blowing out over the water, the dust swirls back toward land in the south, forming an arc several hundred kilometers across.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.