Mother of All Sandstorms Scares the Daylight Away

Tsunami of Sand Washes Over Arabia

Ginormous Sandstorm Sweeps Arabian Peninsula

A giant, fast-moving sandstorm, which started in Iraq and Kuwait on March 25, dropped visibility to near zero, shrouded Kuwait in instant darkness, shut down the city’s airport, disrupted traffic and terrified the people across the Arabian Peninsula.

Frame grab from a Youtube video clip.

Arabian Sand Storm

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Download larger  image (5 MB, JPEG)

These two images of the storm  were taken by MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite.  Top image was taken on March 26, and the bottom image 22-hours later on March 27.  Source: NASA-EO

Related Links

• Sandstorms and Extreme Weather Kill 31 in Egypt
• Planet Dust Bowl
• Killer Dust Storms Strike India, Middle East
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

TC Phet, SST and Intercontinental Dust Storms

Tropical Cyclone Phet Could Reorganize Rapidly after Leaving Oman

Cyclone Phet, Water Vapor Image (4-km res). Source: CIMSS – Click images to enlarge.

Cyclone Phet, Visible/ IR Image (2-km res). Source: CIMSS – Click images to enlarge.

Sea Surface Temperatures Warm Enough for Busy 2010 Hurricane Season

A color-coded image from Japan’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite shows sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Atlantic Ocean and part of the Pacific Ocean. Source: NASA E/O

Saharan Dust Blown Across the Atlantic

Photo-like satellite image taken by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite during successive orbits and stitched together on June 1, 2010, shows a Saharan dust plume approaching the northeast coast of South America, about 8,000km away.  “Each year, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere winter, storms like the one pictured here deliver about 40 million tons of dust from the Sahara to the Amazon River Basin.” Source: NASA E/O

Who’s Afraid of Volcanic Ash Clouds?

Thar: Another Encroaching Desert

Pall of Dust Covers Pakistan-India Border Region

The nearest volcanoes from the Thar Desert on the Pakistan-India Border Region are about 1,000km away. And there aren’t nearly as many of them as in  Iceland. The area won’t receive a significant amount of the volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull Eruption,  but there would be plenty of sand and dust to compensate for the airborne particles.

The photo like image taken by MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows a large dust storm over the Thar Desert on the border between India and Pakistan April 20, 2010. Source: NASA. Click image to enlarge.

Related Links:

• China Sandstorm – Satellite Image
• Second Sandstorm Blasts Beijing
• Humongous Dust Storm Sweeps Africa
• More Dust Storms Plague Arabian Peninsula
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

• S. Arabia Nets Climate Change Q3 Dividends
• 2010 Disasters
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?
• And dust to dust …

• Disaster Calendar 2010
• Drought and Deluge
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• 2010: The Year of Disasters

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China Sandstorm – Satellite Image

China Choked by a Sandstorm

China was blasted by a major sandstorm, which originated in Inner Mongolia on Saturday March 20, 2010. This was the first of two sand storms to strike within two days.

The yellow dust reduced visibility and air quality to potentially hazardous levels in Beijing, and as far away as Taiwan and Japan. MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image.  Dust covers the lower half of the image and wraps around the right-hand side in a comma shape that terminates in a large ball of dust near image center. This pattern is consistent with the passing of a cold weather front bearing a strong area of low pressure at the surface. These weather systems, known as mid-latitude cyclones, are often associated with giant comma-shaped clouds that reveal how air from a very wide area gets drawn in toward the low-pressure heart of the storm. The comma shape is more pronounced in the larger image. Image and caption by NASA. [Edited by FEWW for brevity.]

Related Links:

• Second Sandstorm Blasts Beijing
• SW China on the precipice of catastrophe
• WORST EVER DROUGHT in SW China
• Disaster Calendar 2010
• Drought and Deluge
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• 2010: The Year of Disasters

Second Sandstorm Blasts Beijing

Beijing Blasted by Sandstorms Twice in Two Days

Mothers, tell your children NOT to do what they have done!

Beijing was hit Monday by a second sandstorm just two days after a severe sandstorm struck on Saturday. The sandstorm originated from Mongolia and arrived in Beijing Monday morning, but was expected to subside by the evening.

Tourists visit the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing amid a massive sandstorm, March 22, 2010. The Central Meteorological Station issued a blue alert for sandstorms at 6 AM on Monday. (Xinhua/Sang Quanli). Image may be subject to copyright.

“The sandstorm from Mongolia arrived in Beijing Monday morning, and is expected to weaken by Monday evening,” said Zhang Mingying, senior engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Station, official news agency Xinhua reported.

The Sandstorm spawned by strong winds has swept over north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as Shanxi and Hebei provinces, he was reported as saying.

“Dust and sand left from Saturday’s sandstorm was still affecting Beijing Monday,” Zhang said.

“Although the sky was not as orange as Saturday, the smell of the dust was stronger on Monday,” said Li Nan, a Beijing resident.

Lanzhou, Gansu province, shrouded by a thick yellow-orange haze produced by thousands of tons of airborne sand. March 19 -20, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua] Image may be subject to copyright.

What’s Behind the Sandstorms?

In short, it’s the economy. The impact of exponential growth economy has driven China’s fragile ecosystems to the verge of collapse. The environmental stress caused by overconsumption of water, deforestation, land-use change and severe droughts, enhanced by climate change, are accelerating the desertification in northern China.

Related Links:

• SW China on the precipice of catastrophe
• WORST EVER DROUGHT in SW China
• Disaster Calendar 2010
• Drought and Deluge
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• 2010: The Year of Disasters
• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion

More Dust Storms Plague Arabian Peninsula

Arabian Peninsula Buried Under Sand

Another dust storm sweeps over much of southern Iraq and part of Saudi Arabia in this image from January 25, 2010. The dust appears to be carried on wind blowing from the west ahead of a storm, heralded by the clouds on the left edge of the image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image. The red dots are most likely gas flares in oil refineries in the region. Plumes of black smoke from oil fires rise from some of the refineries. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS RRT at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek. Edited by FEWW.

Related Links:

• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert
• 2010 Disasters
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?
• And dust to dust …

Washington: Thousands of Tons of Topsoil Lost in Dust Storm

Recommended by EDRO

Plume of Dust Plague Blinds Eastern Washington

Dust Plagues: An Increasingly Significant Threat as a Collapse Mechanism

Dust Storm in Eastern Washington [NASA Earth Observatory]

Visibility dropped to zero in parts of eastern Washington on October 4, 2009, as a large dust storm blew through. This image of the storm was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shortly after noon (Pacific Daylight Time). According to local news, the storm brought strong winds gusting to 43 miles per hour in places that propelled the dust across the southeast corner of the state. After numerous multi-vehicle accidents, sections of Interstate 90 near the town of Moses Lake and several local roads had to be closed for several hours.

The dust storm persisted for several hours and was still visible when Aqua MODIS flew over the region at 2:00 p.m. local time. The Terra MODIS image shown here is available in multiple resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System.

A thick, rippling plume of dust runs northeast to southwest through the center of the image. Dust stretches as far south as the cities of Pasco and Kennewick, which sit on opposite banks of the Columbia River. In the north, the dust seems to rise primarily from the pale golden squares of fields farmed using dryland agriculture, a common practice in arid eastern Washington. The dryland fields are larger and less colorful than the bright green and gold fields of irrigated agriculture near the Columbia and Snake Rivers in the center of the image.

Dryland farmers rely entirely on rainfall to sustain their crops, and as a result, do many things to preserve moisture in the soil. Some of these practices—leaving a field fallow after harvest to allow water to build in the soil for a year or covering the field with dry soil to prevent underlying moisture from evaporating—make dryland agriculture very prone to dust storms. These fields are likely either fallow or newly planted, probably with winter wheat, a common dryland crop in eastern Washington.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey and Holli Riebeek. [Edited by FEWW]

Related Links:

• More on Human-Induced Environmental Catastrophes
• The Dust Bowl

• The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl
• Iraq Faces Environmental Catastrophe
• Riyadh City May Collapse by 2010
• Iraq Ecocide Nears Totality
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix

• Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?
• And dust to dust …
• Australia: What can burn, will!

• Desertification: A Most Powerful Mechanism of Collapse
• No Good for Farming!

Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

She buries me; she buries me not.

A massive sandstorm engulfs Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia. Photo Jad Saab/AP. Image may be subject to copyright.

A huge sandstorm engulfs the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, March 10, 2009. The storm, which was still raging hours after it started, disrupted flights at the city’s King Khalid International airport, with weather authorities announcing that visibility would drop to zero, and warning residents to take precautionary measures. (AP Photo/Jad Saab) – AP (signonsandiego).

Dust plumes swept across the Arabian Peninsula in early March 2009, stretching from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf and beyond. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on March 11, 2009.   Image source: GSFC

Related Links:

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Giga Trends
• World CO2 Emissions

• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Blind scientists examining the economic elephant
• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Cosmic Scale Evil
• Index of Human Impact on Nature

• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Stop Burning Earth
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Energy: 286W

• Failing Ecosystems