Dust

25/03/2018, Sahara dust storm, Egypt It is not unusual for Saharan dust to reach parts of Europe. Occasionally, cars get a light covering of this orange-brown dust, typically deposited in a rain shower. European media however reported a more surreal and rare phenomenon in the last weeks of March, as skiers in western Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania and Moldavia were surprised to find snow in the same sepia tones. PROBA-V caught a glimpse of the dust when it crossed the Mediterranean, north of the Nile delta (red colour) in Egypt, as illustrated by this 333 m false-colour image of March 25th. Dust storms can carry large amounts of dust particles, up to a mile (1.6 km) high. While they can have a negative impact on health (e.g. lungs) and economy (reducing crop productivity), they are also a known source of mineral nutrients for the Latin American rain forest.	28/06/2016, Dahlak Archipelago, Eritrea The 100 m false-colour image of 28 June 2016 shows us the Dahlak archipelago affected by a sand storm, as seen by the yellow textures. Dahlak archipelago is an island group located in the Red Sea near Massawa, Eritrea. It consists of two large and 124 small islands. Only four of the islands are permanently inhabited, of which Dahlak Kebir is the largest and most populated. The islands are home to a diverse marine life and sea-birds, and attract an increasing number of tourists.	04/04/2015, Arabian Peninsula This image shows us The Arabian Peninsula. The region gets frequently hit by dust storms, as was the case on 04/04/2015. It is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km². The Arabian Peninsula consists out of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as well as parts of southern Iraq and Jordan. The peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west, the Persian Gulf to the northeast, the Levant to the north and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.	18/06/2016, Red Sea The 300 m true-colour image of 18 June 2016 shows the distinction between the clear northern Red Sea area and the southern area affected by the sand storm, as seen by the yellow textures. West of the Red Sea, the fertile green banks of the Nile River stand out from the grey-yellow Egyptian Desert. To the East, the vast Arabian Desert planes appear bright-yellow, surrounded by some scattered bright-green pivot irrigation fields.
07/09/2015, Middle-East The 300 m image of 7 september 2015 shows the enormous sandstorm extent, covering parts of Syria, Iraq, and southern Turkey. Eventually, the storm moved further westward over the Mediterranean Sea and also affected Cyprus and Egypt. A small part of the thunderstorm causing the haboob can be seen at the very right of the image.	27/02/2015, Arabian dust, west Africa The 300 m images of 27 February 2015 show the Cape verde islands blanketed by the yellow-brownish Saharan dust (left panel), which originated from the Saharan planes in Senegal more than 600 km to the east (right panel). Further, some wake patterns around the southernmost Cape Verde islands can be seen.	02/04/2015, Saudi Arabia, desert dust A large part of the Arabian peninsula consists of a vast desert area. The region gets frequently hit by dust storms, as was the case on 1-2 April 2015. At some locations, visibility was reduced to only a few meters and severely hindered road and air traffic; flights on Dubai airport were diverted for about a day.	01/02/2015, Crete, Saharan dust During early February 2015, a southwesterly airflow transported large amounts of Saharan dust over the Mediterranean Sea towards eastern Europe. The 300 m shows a close-up of the Crete, an island southeast of Greece. The dust is transported from the southwest (lower left) to the northeast (upper right) and some nice wake patterns can be seen north of the island.
24/05/2014, Erg Iguidi, Algeria What seems to be yellow paint streaks slicing through a collection of colors are actually the ridges of wind-blown sand that make up Erg Iguidi, one of the Saharan sand seas. Erg Iguidi is an area of constantly shifting sand dunes that extend from Algeria into northwestern Africa.