• MODIS Pic of the Day 04 June 2022

    From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Sat Jun 4 12:00:36 2022
    June 4, 2022 - Dust off of West Africa

    Dust off of West Africa
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    Northern Africa’s Sahara Desert has been renown as the Earth’s largest
    source of airborne dust. Each year, winds lift about 800 million metric
    tons of desert dust from the region. Dust storms are common during the
    spring, summer, and early fall, when huge plumes of dry, dusty air from
    the Sahara Desert (the Saharan Air Layer) blow westward over the
    tropical Atlantic Ocean.

    On June 3, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
    (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite captured a true-color image of
    a massive river of dust on the move from the Sahara Desert across the
    Atlantic Ocean. This image captures just a portion of a near-continuous
    mass of airborne dust that rises in Algeria and stretches almost 2,500
    miles (4,000 km) across the ocean. The dust is so thick that the Cape
    Verde Islands, which lie between 368 and 530 miles (600-850 km) off the
    African coast, are completely obscured from view.

    Dust from Africa can affect air quality as far away as North and South
    America if it rides the Saharan Air Layer across the Atlantic. The dust
    also plays an important ecological role, such as fertilizing soils in
    the Amazon and building beaches in the Caribbean. The dry, warm, and
    windy conditions associated with Saharan Air Layer outbreaks can also
    suppress the formation and intensification of tropical cyclones.

    Image Facts
    Satellite: Terra
    Date Acquired: 6/3/2022
    Resolutions: 250m ( B)
    Bands Used: 1,4,3
    Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



    https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-06-04

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