Dust Storm over Argentina

Dust Storm over Argentina

Onshore winds sent dust plumes flying inland over Argentina near the city of Viedma in mid-March 2009. This image, acquired on March 16, 2009, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, shows dust plumes blowing toward the northeast. Some of the plumes arise from sediments near the shore, and some of the plumes arise from areas farther inland. This dust storm continued a pattern from January and February of the same year, and the storms likely resulted at least in part from drought in southern South America.

NASA images by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.