Chinese Dust Storm, April 1998

A major dust storm occurred in April over parts of China and Mongolia. Dust was transported all the way to the coast of the United States. Although dust from the Sahara desert routinely is transported across the Atlantic to the east coast of the US, asian dust does not make it across the Pacific to the west coast too often. This animation shows the TOMS aerosol index for this region. Also seen at the end of April is smoke from large Mexican brush fires.

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