Saharan Dust over the eastern Mediterranean

  • Credit

    Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

A large plume of dust is reaching out over the eastern Mediterranean Sea in this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on April 4, 2003. The dust obscures the green fan of vegetation at the Nile River Delta (just to the lower left of center) as well as the island of Cyprus to the northeast. In southern Turkey (top) snow is visible in the rugged coastal mountains.

In addition to Cyprus and Turkey, a number of other countries are shown: Syria (upper right edge), Lebanon (on the Mediterranean coast), Jordan (south of Syria), Iraq (small corner on right edge), Israel (south of Lebanon), Saudi Arabia (lower right edge), and Egypt (bottom). Also shown are the contested regions of the West Bank (right) and the Gaza Strip (left) within Israel. Within Cyprus, two areas are marked off;they are the British bases of Akrotiri (left) and Dekelia (right).

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Aqua/MODIS
  • Visualization Date

    2003-04-07