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April 4, 2026 - Dust Over the Mediterranean Sea
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Extreme winds funneled massive clouds of Saharan dust across the eastern Mediterranean Sea in early April 2026.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the airborne dust on April 3. The green delta of the Nile River, Egypt is visibly shrouded, but the dust thickens in the northeast where Cyprus is entirely engulfed. It is visible only because a black borderline has been overlayed on the image, otherwise the island disappears completely under the tan cloud of dust.
On April 3, the Cyprus Department of Labour Inspection advised that, due to concentrations of airborne dust (PM10) above 200 μg/m³, “all work/activities carried out outdoors must be suspended and rescheduled once the phenomenon has passed”. At 7:00 a.m. local time, the hourly PM10 of 1,167.7 μg/m³ was reported in Nicosia, Cyprus. The acceptable average daily concentration of this fine dust is set, by legislation, at 50 μg/m3.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 4/3/2026
Resolutions:
1km (75.9 KB), 500m (185.7 KB), 250m (247.8 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Extreme winds funneled massive clouds of Saharan dust across the eastern Mediterranean Sea in early April 2026.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the airborne dust on April 3. The green delta of the Nile River, Egypt is visibly shrouded, but the dust thickens in the northeast where Cyprus is entirely engulfed. It is visible only because a black borderline has been overlayed on the image, otherwise the island disappears completely under the tan cloud of dust.
On April 3, the Cyprus Department of Labour Inspection advised that, due to concentrations of airborne dust (PM10) above 200 μg/m³, “all work/activities carried out outdoors must be suspended and rescheduled once the phenomenon has passed”. At 7:00 a.m. local time, the hourly PM10 of 1,167.7 μg/m³ was reported in Nicosia, Cyprus. The acceptable average daily concentration of this fine dust is set, by legislation, at 50 μg/m3.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 4/3/2026
Resolutions:
1km (75.9 KB), 500m (185.7 KB), 250m (247.8 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
