Dust storm in Kazakhstan
North of the Caspian Sea (bottom) in Kazakhstan, a dust storm was blowing over the arid plains on April 9, 2003. The swath of dust is sharply defined on its eastern end, and trails off to the northwest. At the western edge of the Caspian Sea, fires (red dots) were detected in the Volga River Delta by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite.