Wedged between Sudan in the north and Ethiopia in the south,
Eritrea is a fairly small country, but it holds a variety of
landscapes and climates. The central highlands have a temperate
climate, and most of the country’s population lives in that
region. Conditions are drier outside the highlands, particularly
along the Red Sea coast, where dust storms occasionally blow
over the ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite observed one
such dust storm on October 21, 2012. Arising near the coast,
dust plumes stretched northward over the Massawa Channel, just
west of the Dahlak Archipelago. Although the highlands
experience milder temperatures and more moisture, water is
scarce in Eritrea. Less than 5 percent of the land is arable,
and less than 0.5 percent of the land hosts permanent crops. The
country has just one perennial river, and residents rely on
groundwater deposits for agriculture. Besides dust storms that
blow over the Red Sea, Eritrea experiences frequent