A large dust storm swept across Libya and Egypt on May 26, 2010. Lighter in color than the desert beneath it, the dust curls in a comma shape. The shape is probably a reflection of the storm system that generated the winds. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on the afternoon of May 26. The large image, which includes a broader area, shows that the front edge of the dust had reached the Mediterranean Sea. By the following day, a large dust plume extended over the water.
The large image provided above is the highest-resolution version of the image. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
