Many plumes of desert dust (tan pixels) were streaming westward off the coasts of Angola (top) and Namibia (bottom) in southwestern Africa on June 9, 2004. Notice the dark green color of the ocean beneath the dust plumes, indicating the presence phytoplankton thriving in the surface waters there. The frequent influx of iron-rich desert dust settling into the ocean here—together with cold, nutrient-rich waters upwelling from the depths—make these some of the most biologically productive ocean waters on Earth.
This true-color image was acquired on June 9, 2004, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite. The high-resolution image available here is 500 meters per pixel, but the image is also available at additional resolutions.
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Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
