Dust over the Arabian Peninsula

One day after blowing over the Persian Gulf, dust from the Arabian Peninsula spread in the opposite direction, extending over parts of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on February 3, 2012.
A wall of dust stretches north-south along the Arabian Peninsula, roughly 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the Red Sea coast. Plumes of dust also stretch over the Red Sea along the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border, and over the Gulf of Aden along Yemen’s southern shore.
The Empty Quarter, or Rub’ al Khali covers large parts of the Arabian Peninsula, including parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. It is the world’s largest sand sea, holding half as much sand as the Sahara. This rich sand sea provides plentiful material for regional dust storms.

References:
Webster, D., (2005, February 1). Empty Quarter. National Geographic. Accessed February 6, 2012.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.

Instrument:
Aqua - MODIS