Strongest sand storm ever captured on satellite over the Sahara

gsfc ^ | 04/03/03 | gsfc

[Truth666]

Click on link to see the satellite photo. The Canary Islands are the only inhabited area affected.

[mewzilla]

That is awesome.

[skeeter]

That sand is blowing in the direction of the north atlantic, towards the canary islands. I wonder how come so much of it is winding up over central Europe.

[Prodigal Son]

Dad gum! You can almost see nekkid women on the beach on Tenerife in that picture.

[!1776!]

Yes, the sand is of course lifted off the ground, but the amount would not be visible in this photo. Even if it were lifted up into the air as high as the top of Mount Everest, the vertical component would only be equal to five pixels of this image (less than 1% of its width).

I don't have enough background in remote sensing to assess the pixel by pixel attributes of the vertical mixing versus horizontal diffusion and/or advection of the sand in the image.

Just wanted to clarify that the physical process responsible was doing both.

By the way, your analogy of the thickness of the atmosphere (and significant orographic features) comes as a new way of explaining it to me and I like it. I was used to the old standby of a dime on a common globe, but hadn't heard it from a pool ball perspective...

[Centurion2000]

Strongest sand storm ever captured on satellite over the Sahara

For some reason I read SAND WORM .... and started looking for pictures of Arakkis ... criminy I read too much science fiction.

[Truth666]

Related to that :
Feb 2004 : First time snow recorded at Crete's south coast - Photo
Feb 2004 : Are we NOW witnessing the end of the Gulf Stream as we know it ?

[Conspiracy Guy]

Why doesn't that sand in the ocean sink? This is a fake.

CG

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Loaded it. Oh wow...never in my life have I seen something like that. The effects of that must have been horrific.

[knarf]

"I blame Global Warming."

Couldn't be ... the Mars(ians) are falling all over themselves to prove water once existed on Mars, but is long gone now. The temperature at Mars is like eleventeen gazillion degrees below zero, therefore, any evolutionary activity Mars experienced is yet on going with the universe (of which we are part) and thus proves global cooling ... not warming.

Methinks the Mars alchemists had better tread carefully to keep from upsetting the evolutionists.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Where will this sand end up? DC? Alps? Oslo?

[Cold Heart]

Good info

[blam]

"Where will this sand end up? DC? Alps? Oslo?"

See my post #27.

[Truth666]

Thanks for the info. I meant "affected so far".

[Guillermo]

I grew up in Coral Gables. Been a Dolphan all my life.

I got the picture from the link provided by the original poster.

[lepton]

Why doesn't that sand in the ocean sink?

Because of all of that Cellophane.

[Ichneumon]

Thanks. That's what I thought too. But when I first looked at it, my mind just read 'vertical' and I couldn't see it any other way after that.

It's hard to fight optical illusions (even when they arise accidentally in an image).

For example, the following is a static image, and is *not* animated. But try telling your brain that:

Plus I slept through those required six semesters of 'Analyzing Satellite Imagery of Saharan Sand Storms' so I was probably heading into this conundrum with a disadvantage ;-)

ROFL!!

[Truth666]

Fantastic image. thanks

[Conspiracy Guy]

DOH! I should have thought of that.

Thanks

CG

[Truth666]

By the way, the sand storm was caused by extrem cold

[Truth666]

The mass reached the Cape Verde islands - again never seen before
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2004065-0305/CapeVerde.A2004065.1240.1km.jpg