
Credit:
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Michon Scott.
A dust storm blew through northeastern Mauritania in late January 2013. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on January 20. Many of the dust plumes arose in Western Sahara, perhaps fueled by the fine sediments of impermanent rivers and lakes. The dust storm likely picked up more material in northeastern Mauritania, where sand seas cover most of the land surface. Dust-laden winds are some of the most common natural hazards in Mauritania, and less than 1 percent of the land is arable.
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References
- CIA World Factbook. (2013, January 14)
Mauritania. Accessed January 22, 2013.
Images & Animations
File
File Dimensions
- 720x480
- JPEG
- 3600x2800
- JPEG 2 MB
- GeoTIFF 13 MB
- KMZ 2 KB
This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.
Metadata
Sensor:
Aqua - MODISData Date:
January 20, 2013Visualization Date:
January 22, 2013

