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.]
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