An abundance of dust blew off the coast of western Africa in mid-January 2015, continuing an extremely dusty start to the New Year. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on January 14, 2015.
Dust blows westward over the Atlantic Ocean from Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Senegal. Sheets of sand form swirling patterns just off the coast and obscure the view of the Cape Verde Islands. Sand and dust storms are a common natural hazard in this region.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Joanne Howl with Mike Carlowicz.
