Patagonian Dust over the Atlantic Ocean

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA , Posted on: Tuesday, 9 February 2010, 07:15 CST Download full size image

The MODIS on the Aqua satellite captured this image of a dust storm in southern Argentina over the Atlantic Ocean on January 24, 2010. Earlier in the day the dust had risen from point sources on land in individual plumes that blended into a large cloud over the ocean. Turbulence in the air over the ocean created ripples in the dust plume that were still visible in this image which was taken in the afternoon. The ripples in the dust almost echo the vertical strands of color in the ocean below. The color is from a large phytoplankton bloom, made up of millions of tiny plant-like organisms.

More diffuse in the afternoon than it was in the morning, the dust cloud stretches across hundreds of kilometers.

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