Earth Observation

ISS040-E-016514 (21 June 2014) --- Dust plumes and the Namib Desert coast are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 40 crew member on the International Space Station. Strong, hot winds known as “berg” (mountain) winds are lofting plumes of dust directly out into the Atlantic Ocean in this panoramic image. The southern African equivalent of Santa Ana winds in California, berg winds blow on a few occasions in fall and winter, off all coasts of southern Africa. Other images from the space station have captured these dust plumes. Namibia’s great Sand Sea appears here as a reddish zone along part of the coast (center). The Sand Sea is more than 350 kilometers long, giving a sense of the length of the visible dust plumes. A light-toned sediment plume enters the sea at the mouth of the Orange River (lower left), southern Africa’s largest river.