27 September 2009
Amazing Dust Down Under- NASA's View!
Posted by Dan Satterfield
You probably have seen the pictures of the dust storm in Sydney last week, but NASA has weighed in, with the view from the Modis sensor on the Terra and Aqua satellites. These satellites can produce stunning true colour images of the Earth.
So here they are, and I am uploading the 500 meter resolution, so mouse on the image and you can make your video card whimper!
The outline of the Queensland Coast has been overlaid, so you can see how thick the dust was. The dust cloud eventually reached New Zealand!
Here is another shot. The length of the dust cloud is over 3,500 kilometers. The distance from Boston to Los Angeles, or Liverpool to Jerusalem!
Aussie dust cloud moving toward New Zealand
My wife and I have actually experienced a dust storm of nearly this intensity.
Norman, Oklahoma was hit by one in the late 1970’s while I was an undergrad in the Meteorology program. My grandmother grew up in the dusty bowl of Oklahoma in the 1930’s, and clearly remembers it. They would put wet sheets over the doors and windows to keep the dust out. They would be dripping with mud in an hour!
Later,
Dan
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.