NASA Earth Observatory Collection

Dust Plumes Off North Africa Coast

Streamers of dust flow out over the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea from the northern shores of Africa's vast Sahara Desert. On November 14, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MO DIS) on NASA’s Aqu a satellite captured this image of rippling dust being swept northeastward across Libya (center) and Tunisia (top left). The winds that whipped up this dust may be part of a large weather system that brought severe storms—including gale force winds—to parts of Croatia, Italy, and Algeria. The dust plumes persisted for several days in mid-November.

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MOD IS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center

Aqua- MODIS

Aqua

Libya

Mediterranean Sea

Algeria

Italy

Tunisia

Croatia

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

SPD-ETOBS-12576

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