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Saharan Dust over the Atlantic

Instruments:
2002-02-11 00:00:00
February 11, 2002

Fierce winds ripped across the Sahara Desert this past weekend and blewa large plume of dust out over the Atlantic Ocean. This true color imageof the dust event was acquired on February 11, 2002, by theModerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboardNASA’s Terra spacecraft. The light brown dust trail can be seen formingan arc a few hundred miles off the coast of Western Sahara andMauritania. Northeasterly winds blowing across the Atlantic haveredirected the dust towards Europe where it will likely settle.

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Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

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