19 March 2012
Fig. 1
This picture, taken by NASA’s Terra satellite on 8 March 2012, shows a Saharan dust storm blowing into the Canary Islands.
Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
In early March 2012, dust blew off the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara. Drifting northwest, the dust blew over the eastern Canary Islands, especially Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. NASA’s Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of this dust activity (Fig. 1), on 8 March 2012.
In Fig. 1, the dust clouds appear distinct from each other near the shore, which suggests that much of the dust blew from that region. Some dust may also have originated from sand seas, located near the coast and farther inland.
References
NASA Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=77372
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist