We don't hear too much about natural dust, the kind that the winds loft from deserts and dry lakebeds into the air and carries for hundreds of kilometers, crossing oceans and continents, but we should. Plumes of dust connect the atmosphere, the oceans and the forests, and affect the most fundamental processes of life on our planet. Scientists believe that dust has profound and somewhat mysterious influences on atmospheric chemistry, solar heat exchange and nutrient supply to the oceans and rain forests. What those influences are, exactly, is the subject of much study and is still somewhat mysterious--the story of dust shows just how complex our natural world is, and how difficult it is to understand it. For more, see our February feature story, 'Swept From Africa to the Amazon'.

Here are some spectacular natural-color images of dust storms taken by NASA's Aqua satellite, which was launched on May 4, 2002. The images were all taken with an instrument called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MODIS, one of six aboard Aqua.

» View the Slide Show

4 Comments

1. 1. monastralblue 07:13 AM 2/2/12

   On the Cape Verde Islands there are sandy deposits, including dunes and a 4 mile long beach (Praia Grande) on the NE coast of Sao Vincente, which must have arrived from Africa by wind transport, since there is no source of golden sands on the entirely volcanic, mainly basalt islands. Some of the sandy deposits are well consolidated, indicating they are not all recent.

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2. 2. sparcboy in reply to monastralblue 08:23 AM 2/6/12

   Slide 7 would seem to confirm your observation.

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3. 3. Sinibaldi 11:40 AM 2/7/12

   In the flower.
   
   In this way,
   and with a
   delicate song,
   there's a flower
   where a fine
   day appears
   in the novel
   seaside.
   
   Francesco Sinibaldi
   

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4. 4. m allworth 01:44 PM 2/14/12

   Dust is everywhere on Earth and also in space and.
   
   Magnetic lines of force carry plasma e.g. CME's from the Sun.
   
   might dust also be carried on magnetic fields in interstellar space [ dust follows my duster as I clean around the house!] So -
   
   If there are magnetic vortices/bubbles/fields at the outer edges of the Universe might dust, with magnetic lines of force help alter, or add to, the ultimate 'shape' of the edge of the Universe?

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