Dust over Turkey and the Black Sea

Dust from Syria and Iraq continued blowing toward the northwest on July 30, 2011, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image. Dust forms a giant arc extending from northern Iraq across Turkey and the easternmost Black Sea. The northeastern tip of the dust plume appears to push into western Georgia.

The dust likely arose from fine lake and/or river sediments in Iraq, and may have picked up additional material in the north. Although dust from Iraq often blows over the Persian Gulf, it occasionally travels in the opposite direction. (EarthObservatory)