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April 17, 2023 - Dust over the Sea of Okhotsk
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After choking parts of China and Japan on April 11, 2023, Gobi dust continued traveling northeastward, sweeping over the Sea of Okhotsk on April 13. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of the cloud of dust on that same day.
The massive cloud of dust floats in the atmosphere east of both Hokkaido, the second-largest island of Japan, and Russia's Sakhalin Island. Tan dust also floats over the Kuril Islands, which stretch between Russia and Japan. It also tucks under a large white cloud bank. Additional satellite imagery shows that dust stretches several hundred kilometers eastward to appear on the far side of the cloud bank, but that is not visible in this image.
Large dust storms from the Gobi Desert have swept across Eastern Asia at least four times since March 10. This dust likely rose from the desert between April 8 and 10, when the region was scoured by severe winds. As the dust cloud moved over China and South Korea on April 11, air quality indexes registered extremely unhealthy particulate levels in parts of both countries.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 4/13/2023
Resolutions:
1km (215.2 KB), 500m (667.4 KB), 250m (1.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MO'DIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
After choking parts of China and Japan on April 11, 2023, Gobi dust continued traveling northeastward, sweeping over the Sea of Okhotsk on April 13. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of the cloud of dust on that same day.
The massive cloud of dust floats in the atmosphere east of both Hokkaido, the second-largest island of Japan, and Russia's Sakhalin Island. Tan dust also floats over the Kuril Islands, which stretch between Russia and Japan. It also tucks under a large white cloud bank. Additional satellite imagery shows that dust stretches several hundred kilometers eastward to appear on the far side of the cloud bank, but that is not visible in this image.
Large dust storms from the Gobi Desert have swept across Eastern Asia at least four times since March 10. This dust likely rose from the desert between April 8 and 10, when the region was scoured by severe winds. As the dust cloud moved over China and South Korea on April 11, air quality indexes registered extremely unhealthy particulate levels in parts of both countries.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 4/13/2023
Resolutions:
1km (215.2 KB), 500m (667.4 KB), 250m (1.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MO'DIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
