On June 23, 2007, a dust storm began blowing off the coast of Sudan over the Red Sea. Dust continued blowing off the coast for the next several days. On June 28, 2007, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image.
This image shows two principal plumes blowing off the coast of Sudan, with numerous smaller plumes in between them. The plumes blow mostly toward the northeast, creating tan-colored blurs over the ocean surface below. Not all of the Red Sea’s pale color, however, is due to dust. Some of its light appearance results from sunglint caused by the Sun’s light reflecting off the ocean surface and directly back into the satellite sensor.
References & Resources
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this region.
