U.S. Air Quality

International Special: Dust Blowing from Western Africa

The first image below shows the MODIS image of the dust blowing off the western coast of Africa. The second image below, courtesy LANCE Webmapping Service, shows the western portion of Africa and the MODIS AOD values overlaid with the AIRS Dust Score. This very large plume of thick dust began blowing off the coast of Africa on April, 29, 2012. This dust extended from Mali to Cape Verde, where unusually dry conditions in Mali might have worsened the potential for dust storms by drying marsh sediments.