Visitors to Death Valley, California were puzzled by a persistenthaze over the past weekend (April 14th and 15th, 2001). In a region wherethe skies are almost always crystal clear, visibility was limitedto no more than 10 miles. The likely cause was dust, carried acrossthe Pacific Ocean from the deserts of Asia.
This image from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) shows dust suspendedin the atmosphere above the coast of California on April 15, 2001. Concentrations of dustare visible south of (below) the coast, and mixed with clouds further west (left side ofthe image) over open ocean. Dust storms in Mongolia and China have been kicking up dust formonths, as seen in these earlier SeaWiFS images from Marchand January.
For more information, read SeaWiFS Observes Transport of Asian Dust over the Pacific Ocean.
References & Resources
Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
