Dust Storm in Afghanistan and Turkmenistan

On January 23, 2013, a dust storm blew from northern Afghanistan into neighboring Turkmenistan. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image the same day.

The Amudar’ya (Amu Darya) River comprises part of Afghanistan’s border, separating it from Uzbekistan and part of Turkmenistan. South of the river is a sand sea that extends over much of northern Afghanistan. The dust plumes in January 2013 apparently arose from numerous source points in northern Afghanistan. In this image, the source points look like small pinpoints of pale beige, fanning out toward the west.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Michon Scott.

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