January 30, 2020 - Dust over the Arabian Sea

Dust swirled over the Arabian Sea in late January, 2020. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the sandy scene on January 28.

Dust storms are common natural hazards in the region, with at least 15-20 dust storms per year arising from the Arabian Peninsula. Located north of the Arabian Sea, Pakistan’s 79.6 million hectares is about 80 percent arid land, ripe sources for dust. The dust flowing across the Arabian Sea on this day appears to arise in the Kharan Desert in the Balochistan region of Pakistan. The dust flows southward with some curling to the east to reach the Indus River Valley. Underneath the dust, heavy sediment flows into the Arabian Sea from the Indus River and Gulf of Kutch.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 1/28/2020
Resolutions: 1km (545.6 KB), 500m (1.4 MB), 250m (1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC