February 26, 2023 - Saharan Dust over the Atlantic

Dust
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Since mid-February 2023, massive pulses of dust have poured off the
west coast of Africa, coloring the skies with a tan haze.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a true-color image of dust stretching
more than 2,000 km (1,200 miles) over the coastal countries (Mali,
Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone) to the open
waters of the Atlantic. The dust is so thick in the west that it
obscures the blue waters of the Atlantic from view.

According to the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS), the
first large-scale Saharan dust transport of 2023 took place in
mid-February, with dust concentrations across the Iberian Peninsula
rising on February 20. The report, published on February 21, forecast
that Saharan dust would reach as far north as Denmark by February 23.
Daily MODIS imagery confirms dust not only pulsing northward to Europe
during that time, but also reaching across the North Atlantic Ocean,
closely approaching the shores of South America.

The Sahara Desert is by far Earth’s largest source of airborne dust,
and the storms can arise at any time of year. It is estimated that
winds pick up 100 million tons of dust from the Sahara each year, with
a sizable portion blowing out over the North Atlantic Ocean. During
winter and spring storms, the dust often ends up fertilizing the
nutrient-poor soils of South America’s Amazon rainforest.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 2/23/2023
Resolutions: 1km (305.3 KB), 500m (1.1 MB), 250m (3.4 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-02-26

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