English: On October 26, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite flew over the Arabian Sea and captured a true-color image of tan dust blowing off the coast of Iran and Pakistan.

October is a month of transition for weather patterns over the Arabian Sea. In the summer, winds predominantly blow from the sea towards land. In the winter, the winds reverse and blow over the Arabian Sea from the northeast. During October, between the summer and winter monsoons, the prevailing wind direction varies.

In this image, Iran lies in the west and Pakistan in the east. The northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula lies in the southwest, across the Arabian Sea. Greenish coloration in the Arabian Sea may be caused by sediment in the water, or by phytoplankton blooming in the waters – or likely a combination of the two.