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Early Spring Dust over the Mediterranean Sea

Instruments:
2002-03-04 00:00:00
March 4, 2002

The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) observed this large cloud of dust (brownish pixels) blowing from northern Africa across the Mediterranean Sea on March 4, 2002. The dust can be seen clearly blowing across Southern Italy, Albania, Greece, and Turkey—all along the Mediterranean’s northeastern shoreline.

Notice that there also appears to be human-made aerosol pollution (greyish pixels) pooling in the air just south of the Italian Alps and blowing southeastward over the Adriatic Sea. The Alps can be easily identified as the crescent-shaped, snow-capped mountain range in the top center of this true-color scene. There also appears to be a similar haze over Austria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia to the north and east of Italy.

References & Resources

Image courtesy the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE

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