Highly reflective dust was blowing from the northeast over Lake Chad (green splash at bottom of image) on April 9, 2003. Frequent dust storms are just one of the many factors slowly eating away at this prime source of freshwater for people, animals and plants in (counterclockwise from top left) Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. Increasing demand for irrigation is draining the lake, and blowing sand and desert dust are creating sand dunes that are encroaching on the vegetation along the perimeter of the lake (see high-resolution image).
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
