A strong Harmattan wind carried clouds of dust thousands of kilometers across West Africa and the Northern Atlantic Ocean in early February 2012. Blowing south from the Sahara desert, the dry and dusty seasonal trade wind deposited thick layers of dust on sidewalks and
Dust plumes stretched southward over the Arabian Sea in late February 2012. The thickest plume arises just west of the Iran-Pakistan border. Thinner plumes blow southward along the entire coast of Pakistan.Sandy deserts cover much of southern Pakistan and Iran, and
Off the northeastern edge of Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf lies Mackenzie Bay, which was painted with a ghostly blue-green mass in early February 2012. Icebergs sometimes interrupt flow of similarly colored tendrils northward across the ocean. Multiple factors
Tinakula is a conical stratovolcano which forms an island north of Nendo in Temotu Province, the Solomon Islands in South Pacific. It lies at the north end of the Santa Cruz Islands. It is about 3.5 km wide and rises 851 m above sea level, but rises
During our daily MODIS satellite imagery check up we noticed unusual number of newly formed vortices around the globe. Maybe the most significant is one called Tropical cyclone Giovanna which is located in Mozambique Channel and now is battering Madagascar’s southeast
A dust plume blew off the coast of western Africa on February 6, 2012. It was spanning hundreds of kilometers. Distinct plumes blow off the coast of Western Sahara over the ocean, but the large veil of dust in the southwest likely arose farther inland. Sandy desert
A massive dust storm hit Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, disrupting road traffic and bringing public life almost to a standstill. Many schools suspended classes and informed parents to take their kids home well before the school day had ended, while some school authorities have
The emerald green islands of Vanuatu were marked by volcanic activity December 27, 2011. Large thermal anomalies were created by the expulsion of lava and hot volcanic gas from erupting volcanos. A wide volcanic plume can be seen blowing from the Ambrym volcano
The haze which has been blanketing northern India for several weeks continues to plague the region in mid-December, 2011. The thick aerosol soup not only hugs the southern face of the Himalaya, but also pours southward over both coasts, stretching across the Bay of
Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano continues to produce large amounts of ash almost six months after its initial explosive eruption on June 4, 2011. According to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, plumes were observed rising 2.3 to 2.5 kilometers above the
