Large outbreak of Saharan dust over the eastern Atlantic Ocean
EUMETSAT Meteosat-9 0.635 µm visible channel images (click image to play animation)
McIDAS images of EUMETSAT Metosat-9 0.635 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed a very large outbreak of airborne Saharan dust streaming off the continent of Africa and moving west-southwestward out over the adjacent waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean on 07 February 2012. In addition, a pair of long von Karman vortex streets can be seen moving southwestward from the Cape Verde islands.
While the viewing angle was more extreme, the Saharan dust could also be seen on GOES-13 0.63 µm visible channel images (below).
GOES-13 0.63 µm visible channel images + surface reports
The emergence of this Saharan dust over water can be seen to occur around 00:00 UTC on 06 February on the Meteosat-9 Saharan Air Layer tracking product (below).
EUMETSAT Meteosat-9 Saharan Air Layer tracking product