A plume of Saharan dust spanned the Mediterranean Sea in late January 2013. Extending roughly 1,110 kilometers (700 miles), the plume stretched from the coast of Libya to southern Italy and mingled with clouds in the north. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on January 21.
The dust plumes were translucent but thick enough to remain discernible across the Mediterranean. This plume followed days of intermittent dust storm activity off the coast of Libya.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Michon Scott.
