Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Data acquired January 25, 2005 540 x 850 JPEG
Data acquired January 25, 2005 2200 x 2200 1 MB - JPEG
A fast-moving dust storm whipped across the Middle East between January 24 and 25, 2005. By January 25 (top), the plume of dust stretched hundreds of kilometers across Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, and the Persian Gulf (lower right corner). The pinkish-tan dust softens and blurs the richer orange and tan color of the region’s desert terrain and partially veils the olive-colored wetlands in southern Iraq.
The pair of images at the bottom show the progression of the dust storm on January 24. The image at left was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASa’s Terra satellite on the morning of January 24, and it shows the thick cloud of dust (center) making its way across eastern Syria and into western Iraq. The image at right is a combination of observations collected during two overpasses of NASA’s Aqua satellite, several hours later. In the span of a few hours, the dust storm had spread across nearly the entire lower half of the scene.
The large image provided above is the January 25 image at a spatial resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides these images at additional resolutions.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
Published January 25, 2005 Data acquired January 25, 2005