Earth Observations taken by Expedition 30 crewmember

ISS030-E-174652 (28 Feb. 2012) --- A dust storm near the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, USA is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 30 crew member on the International Space Station. Driven by winter winds from the southwest, white dust from the White Sands dune field (center) in New Mexico rises thousands of feet from the valley floor, up and over the snowy peaks of the Sacramento Mts. downwind (right). White Sands National Monument lies in the 50 kilometers-wide Tularosa valley, between the dark rocks and forested slopes of the Sacramento Mts. and the San Andres Mts. (left center). The lower and warmer ridge line of the San Andres was without snow on this day. The striking black lava flows of the Carrizozo lava field also occupy the valley floor (top right). The darker tones of agriculture in the Rio Grande floodplain can be seen along the left margin of the image. The length of the dust plumes in this photograph is more than 120 kilometers. The vigor of the winds on this day can be judged also from the fact that they are lifting the dust particles from the valley floor more than 1,200 meters over the mountains. Winds channel the dust through a low poi

Date

2012-02-28

Collection

JSC

Archive

NASA Image and Video Library

Type

photograph

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