NASA MODIS Image of the Day: January 16, 2012 – Dust storms from Bodele Depression, Chad
Dust plumes blew across southwestern Chad in early January 2012.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on January 12, 2012.
Arising from discrete points in the northeast, the pale beige plumes blow toward the southwest. Winds often blow from northeast to southwest across parts of northern Africa, especially during the Northern Hemisphere winter. The topography of Chad concentrates those winds with a gap between two mountain ranges. As a result, dust plumes frequently blow through the Bodele Depression, the site of a massive dried-up ancient lake in Chad. The plumes now regularly dust modern Lake Chad. Sometimes the dust settles in Africa, and sometimes the dust travels across the Atlantic Ocean, providing minerals to the Amazon Rainforest. In this image, Chad is the country in the northeast, and Niger in the northwest. Nigeria lies in the southwest corner of the image, and Cameroon is due east of that country. The Central African Republic hugs the southeastern edge of the image. Near the lower center, a green area marks Lake Chad, a large, shallow lake which collects water, but has no outflow to rivers or other basins. Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon all share a part of the lake. In the southern region, smoke mixes with the dust. Here the green areas are stippled with red dots, which indicate “hot spots” – and since the hotspots are accompanied by smoke, these spots mark burning fires. In this area, at this time of year, the fires are likely agricultural in origin, set to manage the land for farming or pasture.
