Dust Cloud over Sea of Japan

A large plume of dust blew out over the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan from mainland China on March 17, 2002. The light brown-colored dust can be distinguished easily from the brighter, white clouds in this scene. The dust plume appears to be blowing across North and South Korea as well as parts of Japan on its eastward trek toward the open Pacific Ocean.

This image was acquired by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. Please note that the discontinuity, or ?seam,? running diagonally through this image from top to bottom shows where two adjacent MODIS viewing swaths were stitched together to make one image. As Terra takes roughly 100 minutes to complete an orbit, that is how much time has passed between the righthand side and lefthand side of this image.

References & Resources

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

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March 17, 2002

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