[NASA] Dust Storm Sweeps Over Mali

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3. Dust Storm Sweeps Over Mali

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A dust storm obscures the ground in Mali in this image, acquired with the 

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 (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s

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satellite on September 5, 2026.

NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin

As summer winds down in West Africa, so does much of the region’s dust activity. Dust storms can still occur, though, as one did in early September 2026, when a plume covered parts of Mali and neighboring countries.

The 

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 (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s

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satellite captured this image on September 5, 2026. According to Tianle Yuan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, storms like this one are often associated with

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—powerful dust storms driven by strong convective winds.

In the days after this image was acquired, a

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showed aerosols from the region moving westward and spilling over the Atlantic Ocean. However, a full transatlantic crossing is unlikely. Such crossings are more common from late spring through summer, when the

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—a dry, dusty mass of air—can carry dust thousands of miles westward from Africa, riding high in the atmosphere.

Looking ahead, the developing

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could reshape these patterns. For instance, Yuan noted that the phenomenon can affect dust over the Sahel and Mali by shifting the

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and altering convection patterns, though the influence cuts both ways. Drier conditions can leave more loose sediment available for winds to lift, but less convective activity also means fewer intense storms (haboobs) to kick up large dust plumes in the first place. “The connection can be real,” Yuan said, “but hard to pin down for individual events.”

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA 

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 and 

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. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

Downloads

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September 5, 2026

JPEG (1.99 MB)

References & Resources

• NASA Earthdata (2021, April 19)
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  . Accessed September 9, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2021, June 8)
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  . Accessed September 9, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2020, January 9)
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  . Accessed September 9, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2001, May 18)
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  . Accessed September 9, 2026.

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