In early May 2012, a dust storm blew over the Middle East, particularly east of Damascus. The storm covered most of Syria, and extended into Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on May 11. The dust was thickest in the west, especially over Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, and thinning toward the east.

Source points for this storm aren’t obvious in this image, but the vast sand seas of the Arabian Peninsula provide plentiful material for dust plumes. In addition, impermanent rivers and salt lakes occur throughout the region. The fine sediments from these features, as well as from the Tigris and Euphrates floodplains, can feed dust storms.

A heavy layer of haze hung over northern China on May 10, 2012, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. Haze is common in this region, where people rely on coal for electricity and heat, and dust often blows in from the east, as well.

Numerous fires burning west of Lake Baikal in recent weeks have likely exacerbated the poor air quality in China. MODIS observed plumes of smoke billowing into the air from wildfires on May 8, 2012. According to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, more than 72 fires were still burning roughly 23,000 hectares of forests in Siberia as of May 14.