Dust Plumes off Western Africa

Saharan dust crossed the Atlantic Ocean on June 24, 2009, visible in two separate overpasses of the Aqua satellite.

Atmosphere Land Water Dust and Haze

Dust Plumes off Western Africa

This natural-color image shows dual dust plumes blowing off the African coast on June 22, 2009. One of the plumes reaches Cape Verde.

Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze

Dust Traverses the Atlantic Ocean

A tremendous plume of dust from North Africa drifts toward the Caribbean and contiguous United States.

Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Water Dust and Haze Remote Sensing

Dust Plumes off the West Coast of Africa

This true-color image from July 1, 2009, shows a series of giant dust plumes west of Mauritania. The smallest and most concentrated plume appears east of Cape Verde.

Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze

Dust off Western Africa

Acquired July 25, 2010, this natural-color image shows a dust plume hundreds of kilometers long over the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze

Dust over Cape Verde

Dust and Haze

Saharan Dust over the Cape Verde Islands

A bulge of tan-orange dust hangs over the Cape Verde Islands and the Atlantic Ocean in this natural-color image captured on June 20, 2010.

Atmosphere Dust and Haze

Dust Plume off Western Africa

Captured October 8, 2012, this image shows a dust plume spanning hundreds of kilometers off the western coast of Africa.

Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze

Thick Dust Plumes Obscure Africa’s Coast

An extensive dust storm in late February carried debris over the Atlantic Ocean, en route to the Amazon Basin.

Image of the Day Atmosphere

Saharan Dust on the Move

In June 2014, winds pushed a river of dust from western Africa across the Atlantic Ocean.

Image of the Day Atmosphere Dust and Haze

A Dust Plume to Remember

While dust routinely blows across the Atlantic Ocean, scientists rarely see plumes as large and dense with particles as the one that darkened Caribbean skies in June 2020.

Image of the Day Atmosphere Dust and Haze Remote Sensing

Tracking Dust Across the Atlantic

Dust storms in mid-summer 2013 spanned the Atlantic Ocean, depositing particles in the Americas and perhaps suppressing hurricanes.

Image of the Day Atmosphere

Dust Storm off Western Sahara

Saharan dust hovered over the Atlantic for several days in mid-January 2008. This image shows two different areas of dust plume activity. Immediately off the coasts of Western Sahara and Mauritania, a series of tan dust plumes blow in predominantly straight lines toward the northwest. Farther west, a large, diffuse plume of dust hangs over the Atlantic Ocean

Image of the Day Atmosphere Land Water Dust and Haze