NASA MODIS Image of the Day: May 6, 2007 – Dust Storm over Kazakhstan
On May 2, 2007, a dust storm formed in Kazakhstan, just south of the Russian border. At 08:25 UTC, the MODIS sensor on the Aqua satellite captured an image of the storm. To see how much the storm grew in size and intensity, move your mouse over the image and you will see an image taken by the MODIS on the Terra satellite at 06:35 UTC.
In both of these images, the dust plumes appear as diagonal tan swipes. Dust storms often originate from distinct locations that can be seen in satellite imagery, and the high-resolution images reveal source points for the storm in the southwest, indicating that the wind direction is toward the northeast. Many of the source points appear in the vicinity of Tengizy (Tengiz) Köli.
Immediately north of the dust is a bank of clouds, perhaps associated with the same weather system that kicked up the dust. Sprinkled throughout northern Kazakhstan are hotspots where the sensor picked up anomalously warm surface temperatures. Likely indications of fires, these hotspots appear as red dots.
