Weather stations in Baghdad, Iraq, reported a windy day on June 23, 2010. Along with the wind came another dust storm, a frequent occurrence in the spring and summer. In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, a wide plume of dust hangs over central Iraq. Baghdad was under the western edge of the dust storm. Waves ripple the surface of the thick, opaque cloud of dust, reflecting turbulence in the air.
In the large image, which shows a much larger area, smaller plumes of dust are visible across the Middle East from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. The large image is the highest-resolution version of the image. Twice-daily images of the region are available in a variety of resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.
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NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
