A massive dust plume hovered over eastern Iraq and skirted the Iranian border in mid-March 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture on March 15, 2009.
In this true-color (photo-like) image, the dust appears slightly lighter in color than the underlying ground surface. The beige plume obscures the satellite’s view of lakes and ponds along the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys. The fine sediments from these basins provide plentiful material for dust storms over Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
A bank of clouds appears in the northwest, over Turkey. These clouds might be associated with weather patterns that stirred the dust.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
