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Fierce winds ripped across the Sahara Desert this past weekend and blew a large plume of dust out over the Atlantic Ocean. This true color image of the dust event was acquired on February 11, 2002, by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA’s Terra spacecraft. The light brown dust trail can be seen forming an arc a few hundred miles off the coast of Western Sahara and Mauritania. Northeasterly winds blowing across the Atlantic have redirected the dust towards Europe where it will likely settle.

For more information and current images of dust storms, visit Natural Hazards on the Earth Observatory

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC