Earth  ID: 2137

West Africa Dust Storms

Visualizations by Stuart A. Snodgrass Released on May 10, 2001
On the Coast of West Africa, dust storms are a common occurrance, if you take a look at this one, its about the size of Spain. SeaWIFS returned this dramatic close-up view of a vast, developing cloud of Saharan desert dust blowing from northwest Africa a thousand miles or more out over the Atlantic Ocean. Aerosol particles larger than about 1 micrometer in size are produced by windblown dust and other sources. After formation, the aerosols are mixed and transported by atmospheric motions and are primarily removed by cloud and precipitation processes. From space-based vantage points, other satellite images have also revealed storms that transport massive quantities of fine sand and dust across Earth's oceans.
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On the Coast of West Africa, dust storms are a common occurrance, if you take a look at this one, its about the size of Spain.
Download Options
On the Coast of West Africa, dust storms are a common occurrance, if you take a look at this one, its about the size of Spain.
Download Options
Video slate image reads, "West Africa dust storm as big as Spain".

Visualization Credits

Stuart A. Snodgrass (GST): Lead Animator
Gene Feldman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become DigitalGlobe).

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2137

Data Used:
SeaStar/SeaWiFS
2000/02/26
NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye
Credit:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, The SeaWiFS Project and GeoEye, Scientific Visualization Studio. NOTE: All SeaWiFS images and data presented on this web site are for research and educational use only. All commercial use of SeaWiFS data must be coordinated with GeoEye (NOTE: In January 2013, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye combined to become one DigitalGlobe.).
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
SeaWiFS Dust Storm

Goddard TV Tapes:
G2001-038
G2008-047 -- Glory Resource Reel

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> Dust
SVS >> Sahara
SVS >> Storm
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Aerosols
GCMD >> Location >> Africa
GCMD >> Location >> West Africa
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0

Places you might have seen this:
Communcations of the ACM, July 2002, volume 45, Number 7, page 31