Sahara Desert Dust Storm

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Friday, 29 July 2005, 10:43 CDT Download full size image

The Sahara, one of the world’s most prolific dust producers, kicked up another storm on July 19, 2005. The Aqua MODIS instrument captured this image of the west coast of Africa as a huge veil of dust swept out over the Atlantic Ocean and Cape Verde Islands. The dust storm is several hundred kilometers across, covering the countries of Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. White clouds provide a contrast to the dust because they are at a higher elevation in the atmosphere than the dust. Clouds that appear yellowish are at the same elevation or lower than the dust.

More Images

Mars
Swirls of Rock in Candor Chasma.This image shows spectacular layers exposed on the bottom of Candor Chasma, which is a large canyon ...

---

Universe
Dusty Wedge.The ghostly features in Saturn's B ring called spokes are making an appearance again as the Cassini ...

---