Resembling the arc of a solar prominence, a bulb of dust curves over the Atlantic Ocean from western Africa in this true-color image from April 22, 2010. Thick dust had been blowing across the desert for several days before it reached the coast. Less than two hours before this image was captured, a thick cloud of dust advanced across the Sahel (inland, south of the Sahara). Some of that dust may be in the plume shown in this image.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired the image on April 22. The large image is the highest-resolution version of the image, but the image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.
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NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
