On September 5, 2008, a dust storm formed a giant “U” over southern Afghanistan, grazing Iran, and stretching into Pakistan. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture of the storm the same day.
In this natural-color image, the pale beige dust plumes partially obscure the land surface below. Some of the dust apparently arises from source points in the northwest, where salt lakes and sand seas rest near the borders between the three countries. In the northeast, some dust blows over Registan (also known as Rigestan) in Afghanistan. On a clear day, the red-brown sand dunes of this arid plateau stand out from the surrounding beige and tan landscape.
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NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
