June 9, 2022 - Saharan Dust over the Caribbean and South America
Saharan Dust over the Caribbean & South America
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On June 1, 2022, strong winds blew a thick layer of dust from the
Sahara Desert, pushing it westward over the Atlantic Ocean. The dense
dust plume continued to grow in size and length, and by June 6, the
leading edge of the massive river of dust reached South America. The
dust plume stretched more than 3,500 miles (5,630 km) and covered more
than 2.2 million square miles (5.7 million square km).
On June 7, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of
Saharan Dust over the Caribbean and South America. Dust hovers over
northern Venezuela as well as many of the Caribbean Islands, including
Aruba and Curacao near the coast of South America and Puerto Rico and
the Dominican Republic, seen in the north of the image. The Saharan
dust is expected to reach the Gulf of Mexico over the next few days and
is expected to color skies over Texas and possibly other southern U.S.
states by June 12.
The Sahara Desert is by far Earth’s largest source of airborne dust,
and the storms can arise at any time of year. In winter and spring
storms, Saharan dust often ends up fertilizing the nutrient-poor soils
of the Amazon rainforest. Dust storms in the summer tend to loft
material higher into the atmosphere, allowing plumes to travel
thousands of kilometers on high-level winds. Those summer seasonal wind
patterns can carry the dust from Africa to the Caribbean and the Gulf
of Mexico. Plumes of dust recently reached Florida, Texas, and other
southern U.S. states in mid-May 2022.
Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 6/7/2022
Resolutions: 1km (375.7 KB), 500m (1.2 MB), 250m (3.7 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=2022-06-09
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