Dust Storm off Egypt and Libya
The image, acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite, on 19 February 2011, shows a dust storm, blowing off the coast of North Africa, into the Mediterranean Sea. (Black outlines show coastlines and borders.)
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

 

On 19 February 2011, dust blew off the coast of northern Africa, and stretched into the Mediterranean Sea, for the second consecutive day. NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired the above natural-color image, on the same day.


The image shows the dust was dense enough to obscure the coast along the Egyptian-Libyan border, but it was less dense, east of the border. A translucent haze of dust covered the region, extending from the Nile Delta, toward the Island of Cyprus. The veil of dust formed an arc immediately east of a similarly shaped cloud pattern. The clouds may have been related to the same weather system that caused the dust storm, and the vast deposits of sand in Libya and Egypt may be the source of the fine dust particles.


NASA monitors the environment with a group of sophisticated satellites. The Aqua satellite carries onboard a suite of sensors, specially designed for studying water on land, in the oceans, and in the atmosphere. Its mass is over 3,000 kg, and was launched into space aboard a powerful Delta II rocket, on 4 May 2002. Aqua circles Earth every 98 minutes, at an average altitude of about 700 km. Its orbit is polar, a type of orbit that passes over or near Earth’s poles. The name Aqua comes from Latin word for water.


References
NASA Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=49388
Wikipedia


Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist