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.
Spanning hundreds of kilometers, the dust is nearly thick enough to hide the island of Sardegna (Sardinia). Dust extends both east and west of the island, and fills the skies southwest of neighboring Corse (Corsica). To the east, skies are clear over mainland Italy.
This image shows no source plumes for the dust cloud, but the dust likely arose from Saharan sand seas in Africa.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
- Terra - MODIS