October 22, 2020 - Dust Storm in Chad

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   Dust Storm in Chad
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   On October 21, 2020, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
   (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of pale
   plumes of dust pouring from the Bodele Depression and blowing to the
   southwest.

   Located south of the Tibesti Mountains and east of the Ennedi
   Mountains, the Bodele Depression is often raked by strong wind as air
   masses moving to the southwest strike the mountain ranges and are
   squeezed between them. Once aloft, the dust often continues traveling
   across neighboring countries, and sometimes all the way across the
   Atlantic to fertilize the Amazon Rainforest in South America.

   Once serving as part of the floor for a much larger Lake Chad, the
   Bodele Depression, located at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.
   The modern remnants of Lake Chad can be seen near the bottom of the
   image. While the Bodele Depression provides the source of frequent dust
   storms, Lake Chad remains the most significant water body in the Sahel
   region of Chad, housing most of the population of the country. Both
   were part of the former inland sea known as Mega-Chad. Sometime before
   5000 B.C., Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four paleolakes that
   existed in the Sahara region during the African Humid Period. It is
   estimated to have covered about 400,000 sq km (150,000 sq mi), roughly
   the size of today’s Caspian Sea.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 10/21/2020
   Resolutions:  1km (67.4 KB),  500m (234 KB),  250m (742.8 KB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2020-10-22
 
