Dust over the Black Sea and Eastern Europe

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA , Posted on: Sunday, 25 October 2009, 06:14 CDT Download full size image

In this image, captured by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite on October 14, 2009, dust lingers over Eastern Europe in the wake of a strong dust storm that started the previous day. The storm swept over a wide region from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east. From south to north, the dust extends several hundred kilometers from the southern Caspian Sea, near Iran, into Russia.

Looking more closely at the dust over the Black Sea, we can see that the low dusty layer of air fills the valleys of the Anadolu Daglari mountains, which line this body of water to the south. The dark green peaks of the mountain are left clear. The dust serves to highlight the valleys in Turkey. Another sign that the dust is relatively low in the atmosphere is the brilliant white clouds in the center and right side of the image. The clouds are white, not colored by dust above them, and they cast shadows on the dusty layer of air beneath them.

The red dots are the locations of active fires.

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