April 9, 2003
On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this image of Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. A dust storm that was hanging over the northwest part of Iraq on April 5 has shifted east and southeast, creating a tan haze over clouds at top center of the image and obscuring the terrain features across the lower right. Several thermal anomalies have been detected by MODIS and are marked with red dots. In the center of the image, the enormous clouds of dark oil smoke seen over Baghdad in previous days has cleared, though thermal signals and small plumes remain.
