Dust Plumes over Central Asia

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Thursday, 2 April 2009, 07:55 CDT Download full size image

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan exchanged dust in late March 2009. The MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture on March 25, 2009. Two dust plumes appear in this image. The larger plume blows in a counter-clockwise direction from Turkmenistan into northern Afghanistan, just missing Uzbekistan. The smaller plume blows from western Afghanistan northeastward into Turkmenistan. Source points for the smaller plume appear in the lower left corner of this image.

Sand seas cover most of Turkmenistan, providing plentiful material for dust storms. Much of Afghanistan’s land is also arid. In between these dust plumes, however, appears a broad swath of green vegetation, and vegetation extends northeastward into Uzbekistan.

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