The eastern half of Cape Verde sat directly in the path of a stream of dust blowing off the African coast on July 1, 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this photo-like image the same day.
Tan dust forms a giant S-shaped curve off the coast of western Africa, blowing primarily off the coast of Mauritania, curving south over Cape Verde, and turning west again south of the archipelago. A thinner plume of dust blows off the coast of Western Sahara, forming a giant arc northwest of Cape Verde.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
