large images:
U.S. Atlantic Coast April 22, 2001 (580 Kb)
China, Korea, & the Sea of Japan April 24, 2001 (1.9 Mb)
Even as the vast cloud of dust from China—originating around April 7,2001—blows eastward from North America's Atlantic coast, a new duststorm is now blowing from China over the Pacific. This pair oftrue-color images was collected by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-viewSensor (SeaWiFS). The top image, acquired April 22, 2001, shows hazeover the mid-Atlantic United States extending well out over the GulfStream. The bottom image, acquired April 24, reveals that a significantamount of dust is still blowing out of Asia. Near the top of thefull size Asian imageyou can also see smoke plumes from fires in Russia driftingsouthward to blend with the windborne dust.
The early April dust cloud started as a sand storm sweeping across theTaklimakan Desert in western China and then across the Gobi Desert ineastern Mongolia. Heavy winds lifted the dust high into the tropospherewhere, scientists believe, the plume intermingled with smoke fromindustrial pollution in southeast Asia before it was pushed out to seatoward North America. When the April 7 dust cloud arrived overColorado, it was estimated to be about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) long and6.4 km (4 miles) thick.
References & Resources
Image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
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