Dust over red sea

Image of the week: Desert dust from space

 

Watching our Earth from 36,000km

Dust over red sea
Dust over red sea

Dust moving over the Red Sea as seen from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite.

Last Updated

14 November 2024

Published on

10 June 2024

This week’s image of the week focuses on Saharan dust moving across the Red Sea towards Saudi Arabia. 

Desert dust particles are lifted into the atmosphere by gusts of surface wind and can be transported and deposited thousands of kilometres away. 

When dust travels over populated areas, it can reduce air quality and impact health by causing respiratory problems and cause flight delays. 

The image was captured by one of the two Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites. 

The Sentinel-3 satellites are in a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 815 kilometres, and they are designed to monitor the Earth's oceans, land, ice, and atmosphere. 

Dust storm image

This image was captured by the OLCI instrument onboard Sentinel-3 on 9 June 2024.

EUMETSAT operates the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites, in cooperation with ESA, and delivers the marine data on behalf of the European Union.

More info

Visualise Sentinel-3 data with EUMETView or WEkEO

Access atmospheric data from EUMETSAT User Portal

Learn more about monitoring dust and aerosols from space - https://training.eumetsat.int/course/view.php?id=471#section-3

Access Copernicus atmosphere service https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/ and five-day global forecast plots https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/global-forecast-plots

WMO Barcelona Dust Regional Center - https://dust.aemet.es/