Saharan Dust off Libya

Dust was streaming northward from the Sahara Desert in northern Africa in late January and early February 2003. The image from Feb. 2 shows (West to east) Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya shrouded in dust, which stretches out well over the Mediterranean Sea (top). A large plume of Saharan Desert dust was blowing over Libya (west) and Egypt (east) northward over the Mediterranean Sea toward the Middle East, on February 2, 2003. The island of Cyprus is situated toward the upper right hand of this image, partially obscured by one particularly thick portion of the dust plume approaching Israel’s western shoreline. On Feb. 3, skies over the Nile in Egypt appear to be clearing, and dust is spread farther east—over the Sinai Peninsula, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria (upper right). These true-color images were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments aboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC