Dust clouds blew over central Africa in early March 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture of the region surrounding Lake Chad on March 10, 2009.
In the upper right corner of this image, dual dust plumes blow out of the Bodele Depression toward Lake Chad. Frequent dust plumes in this area result from the natural wind tunnel between Chad’s Tibesti and Ennedi Mountains. Meanwhile, larger dust clouds hover over Nigeria, Cameroon, and southern Chad. These dust plumes are probably mixed with smoke. The red dots scattered across the bottom of this image are hotspots where MODIS detected unusually warm temperatures associated with agricultural fires and/or wildfires.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
