On April 9, 2008, numerous dust plumes blew off the Libyan coast and over the Mediterranean Sea. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image the same day. Although contrasting strongly with the underlying ocean water, the tan plumes are thin enough to allow a view of the land and water surfaces underneath the dust. The plumes blow toward the east-northeast, turning more northward as they move farther off the coast.This dust storm continued a pattern of intermittent storms blowing off the African coast and over the Mediterranean in the early spring of 2008.
More and bigger photos and more information available here, at NASA.
More like this
Maybe I should just apologize right here and now for that title, but dang, I liked it.
Anyway, I've seen a lot of plume images cross my browser/inbox over the last day, so I thought I'd post a few of them.
Your weekly dose of volcanic activity from the USGS/SI. (a little late thanks to an exciting day of column chemistry).
Some highlights include:
Quick hit post from beautiful Walnut, Iowa, but this was too interesting to pass up...
Bright plume spotted on Venus, image taken by the ESA Venus Express.
All the volcano news that is fit to print, all thanks to the USGS/Smithsonian GVP!
hey, a sirocco! this was always fun when living in Rome, it would rain Sahara all over the city.
A few days later, residents of Naples, Italy woke up to discover that a light rain overnight had deposited orange-colored mud all over their cars.
Happens every spring.