One day after multiple dust plumes blew through Iraq, dust hovered over the Persian Gulf. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on July 1, 2011.
As on the previous day, light and dark dust plumes blow in the direction of the Persian Gulf through southeastern Iraq. The dark plume, however, is much thinner than it was the day before.
Dust plumes blow over the Persian Gulf, and dust is especially thick off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Although much of this dust may have traveled from Iraq, some dust may also have arisen in the Empty Quarter or Rub’ al Khali. This massive sand sea spreads over much of the southern Arabian Peninsula, including parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
NASA images courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
