The deep blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea were shrouded in dust from North African deserts on January 29, 2005. A dusty haze stretches across the center and top parts of the scene from the Gulf of Sirte (left center edge), past the Nile Delta (right of center), all the way to Turkey (top right). The Red Sea (lower right corner) appears to be dust free. Between the knob of land in Libya just east of the Gulf of Sirte and the green fan of the Nile Delta lies a large desert called the Great Sand Sea. Dust storms are a serious natural hazard in the region, particularly for aircraft. This image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team.
