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Plumes of orange dust blew off the coast of southwestern Africa in early June 2021. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image on June 3.
Two large parallel plumes stream westward over the dark waters of the South Atlantic Ocean along the southern coast, while several broader and fainter plumes blow off the northern coast. All appear to rise from the sands of the Namib Desert, a cool coastal desert that stretches about 1,200 miles (2,000 km) from southern Angola to northern South Africa. The largest section lies in Namibia and appears as an orange-tinted sand sea. The southern plumes rise in South Africa, south of the Orange River which marks the boundary between Namibia and South Africa. The fainter plumes flow from the Sand Sea in Namibia.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/3/2021
Resolutions:
1km (1 MB), 500m (2.9 MB), 250m (1.7 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC