English: Plumes of dust were blowing southward over the Arabian Sea on October 13, 2020 when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the sandy scene.

Several light beige streamers of dust rise from the coast of Pakistan and are blown southward on strong winds. The largest plume appears to come from the border of Pakistan and Iran. Further south, a swirl of dust colors the sky over the Arabian Sea. This swirl most likely originated east of this sandstorm on October 12, when a broad blanket of dust was carried by the wind from closer to the Indus River.

Sandy deserts cover much of southern Pakistan and Iran, and the sand seas of the region often give rise to dust storms. Sandy deserts also cover large parts of Oman, although it does not appear that the dust in this image arises from that country.