West Africa Dust Storms

  • Released Thursday, May 10, 2001
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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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Video slate image reads, "West Africa dust storm as big as Spain".

Video slate image reads, "West Africa dust storm as big as Spain".

Credits

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).

This page was originally published on Thursday, May 10, 2001.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:58 PM EDT.

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Datasets used in this visualization

  • [SeaStar: SeaWiFS]

    ID: 100
    Sensor: SeaWiFS Dates used: 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.).

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