20 June 2012
.jpg)
Fig. 1
Dust storm blowing into the Red Sea
Credit: NASA
In early June 2012, a dust storm blew over the Red Sea. The large arc-shaped storm stretched from the Sudanese coast toward the southeast. On 8 June, NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a natural-color image (Fig. 1) of the magnificent dust cloud. The dust was thick enough to obscure the sea, while a veil of thinner dust covered the entire region.
A network of ephemeral rivers extends over much of eastern Sudan, and the fine sediments from these waterways might have been the source of the dust over the Red Sea.
Aqua is a research satellite, studying the evaporation, precipitation and cycling of Earth’s water. Its orbit is approximately 700 km high.
References
Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=78229
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist