A small dust plume blew from Saudi Arabia over the Red Sea on December 12, 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. Arising near the coast, north of the city of Jiddah (Jeddah), the plume arcs toward the southwest. The dust is thick enough to completely hide the water below, but the plume stops short of the Sudan coast.
On both its eastern and western sides, the Red Sea is bordered by some of the world’s most prolific dust-producing regions. Shifting winds mean that dust can blow in either direction, from the Arabian Peninsula or Africa.