Thick dust plumes hovered over northern Iraq, eastern Syria, and southern Turkey in mid-April 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture on April 15, 2009. This true-color image shows a combination of dust and clouds over the region, with clouds predominating over Turkey. The clouds might be associated with the same weather system that stirred the dust.
Like the clouds, the dust is thick enough in places to completely obscure the land surface below. Overall, the dust appears to blow toward the southeast, and some source points for the dust can be seen in Syria.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
