NOAA SATELLITE SHOWS MASSIVE DUST STORM IN IRAQ MOVING SOUTHWARD

March 27, 2003 — A NOAA polar-orbiting satellite shows the massive dust storm in Iraq moving southward. The image shows little cloud cover over most of Iraq. Another image taken by the NOAA satellite shows ‘hot spots’ in southern Iraq, Kuwait, Iran and the Persian Gulf. Some of the ‘hot spots’ in southern Iraq are believed to be burning oil fields. Smaller ‘hot spot’ areas visible southwest of Baghdad are believed to be fires in the region. The other ‘hot spot’ areas in Kuwait, Iran and the Persian Gulf are the result of operations of waste gas flaring from oil wells. (Click NOAA image for larger view of sand storms moving southward in Iraq taken March 27, 2003, at 5:27 a.m. EST. Click here for image without annotations. Please credit “NOAA.)

The dust storm image was produced from data taken by the NOAA-16 satellite on March 27, 2003, at 5:27 a.m. EST (1:27 p.m. Iraq local time). The image measures 1280 x 1017 pixels with NOAA annotations.

The ‘hot spots’ image was taken on March 26, 2003 at 6:05 p.m. EST (2:05 a.m. Iraq local time). It measures 1280 x 1095 with NOAA annotations. NOAA-16 is a polar-orbiting NOAA satellite, which flies at about 520 miles above the Earth in an almost north-south orbit. (Click NOAA image for larger view of 'hot spots' from burning oil fields in southern Iraq, taken March 26, 2003, at 6:05 p.m. EST. Click here for image without annotations. Please credit “NOAA.)

These images were processed by the NOAA Operational Significant Event Imagery, part of NOAA Satellites and Information.

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Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Operational Significant Event Imagery

NOAA Polar-Orbiting Satellites

All About NOAA Satellites

Climatology for Southwest Asia, including Afghanistan and Iraq

Media Contact:
Greg Hernandez, NOAA, (202) 482-3091