Multiple dust plumes blew eastward across the Red Sea in late July 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on July 24, 2010. Along the eastern edge of the Red Sea, some of the dust forms wave patterns. Over the Arabian Peninsula, clouds fringe the eastern edge of a giant veil of dust. East of the clouds, skies are clear.
Along the African coast, some of the smaller, linear plumes in the south may have arisen from sediments near the shore, especially the plumes originating in southern Sudan. The wide, opaque plume in the north, however, may have arisen farther inland, perhaps from sand seas in the Sahara.
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NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.
