Dust over the Mediterranean Sea
Thick dust hovered over the Mediterranean Sea in early September 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image on September 2, 2011.
Spanning hundreds of kilometers, the dust is nearly thick enough to completely hide the island of Sardegna (Sardinia). Dust extends both east and west of that island, and fills the skies southwest of neighboring Corse (Corsica). To the east, over mainland Italy, skies are clear.
This image shows no source plumes for the dust cloud, but the dust likely arose from Saharan sand seas and blew off the northern coast of Africa. (EarthObservatory)
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