Phenomena: Sandstorm. Dust, Wind

Satellite: GEO-KOMPSAT 2A (operated by South Korea)

Product: GeoColor (CIRA)

Time: 05:00 UTC - 11:40 UTC, April 24, 2024

The GEO-KOMPSAT 2A satellite, operated by our partners in South Korea, watched strong winds carry a large dust plume from the Gobi Desert on April 24, 2024. Watch in this GeoColor imagery as the sandstorm moves over Mongolia and into China.

This image was captured by the Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI) onboard South Korea’s Geostationary Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite - 2A (GEO-KOMPSAT 2A). This satellite, the second flight unit of the Communication, Oceanography and Meteorology Satellite (COMS) program, provides near-real time availability of full resolution image data by direct broadcast in X-band of the Asia-Pacific region. GEO-KOMPSAT 2A's data are vital for global geostationary coverage, which is why NOAA and Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) have agreed to mutual back-up arrangements for their geostationary systems.