Dust from the Gobi Desert blew across China to the Yellow Sea in late April and early May 2011. On May 1, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image.
Skies are clear along the western shore of Bo Hai, but farther out to sea the dust is thick enough to hide the water. Over the Korean Peninsula, dust mingles with clouds, giving them a faint camel-colored hue. In the south, along China’s eastern coast, shades of tan likely result not from dust but from sediment in the ocean.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.
