Science and Exploration

An African Sandstorm As Seen From Orbit

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
June 29, 2021
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An African Sandstorm As Seen From Orbit
African Sandstorm
ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet

Thomas Pesquet: A sandstorm! I have seen a few times sand deposited on cars in the streets of metropolitan France, the result of such a weather event, and I knew as a pilot flying to Africa that it could be bad sometimes, but I had never seen one from space!
This one looked massive… I wonder how many tons of sand just flew over dozens or hundreds of kilometres. Mother nature has some strength.

Une tempête de sable ! J’avais déjà vu du sable déposé sur les voitures en France hexagonale, et dans ma carrière de pilote on m’avait dit que ça pouvait arriver en volant au dessus de l’Afrique, mais je n’en avais jamais vu depuis l’espace. Celle-ci a l’air impressionnante… Je me demande combien de tonnes de sable elle a déplacé, et sur quelle distance : une idée @meteofrance ?

Credits: ESA/NASA-T. Pesquet Larger image

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.