Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

Data Product: Aerosol Index
WESTERN SAHARA DUST - February 26, 2000


Saharan dust blowing out toward the Canary Islands. Select this image to see an animation of the TOMS Aerosol Index

This February 26 image shows a dust plume obtained from TOMS data over the Sahara Desert and extending over the Atlantic Ocean and Canary Islands. The land sources of the dust plume are clearly visible, with the main source coming from Western Sahara and Mauritania. The green to red false colors in the dust plume image represent increasing amounts of aerosol, with the densest portion over the ocean. Under the densest portions of the dust plume (red) the amount of ultraviolet sunlight is reduced to half its normal value, while over the land (green) the UV sunlight is reduced by about 20%. The high dust amount over the ocean was not present on previous days. Between February 27 to February 29 the ocean dust plume decreases while a massive dust plume develops over the land that covers a region from the equator to 30o N latitude. Based on previous dust events observed by TOMS, there should be another dense plume over the ocean during the next few days.