File:Dust Cloud over Syria, Iraq, Turkey (MODIS 2022-04-09).jpg

English: A thick cloud of dust hung over parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria in early April 2022. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite captured the scene on April 7. At that time the dense orange dust was so thick that it obscured the land from view over an area of about 78,000 square kilometers (30,116 square miles). That’s very close to the size of the U.S. state of South Carolina. Although not as thick, dust also hangs in the air around the state-sized cloud, especially in the north, where orange dust appears to mix with the cloud layer, and to the east where a long tendril of dense dust also obscures the land from view. The origins of the dust swept up by the strong winds in this storm are not obvious, but the Arabian Peninsula is filled with sand-and-dust laden deserts, such as the An Nafud Desert and the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter, or Rub’ al Khali, sprawls over parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Containing about half as much sand as the Sahara Desert, the Empty Quarter provides a rich source for the frequent dust storms of the region.