A faint plume of dust from Saudi Arabia blew northward over the Persian Gulf on April 17, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Aqua satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, the dust appears and a faint band of tan over the water. Home to large deposits of fine sand and silt, the Middle East produces numerous dust storms throughout the year. This faint plume of dust is a relatively mild event.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.