Dust Storm off Western Sahara Coast
Dust storms have been sweeping across central and western Africa on and off since early January 2005. This image shows an immense dust event on February 16, 2005.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite observed streamers of Saharan Desert dust flowing northwestward off the coast of Africa on New Year’s Day 2005. In the next several days after this event, MODIS instruments aboard both Terra and Aqua have observed dust storms originating in the Bodele Depression, in the southern central Sahara.
The high resolution copy available here is 250 meters per pixel—MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution. Copies of this scene are also available at addition resolutions.