Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features a remarkable dust storm over the Arabian Sea. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/atmospheric-river-carries-african-dust-to-western-europe/">dust</a> was streaming from Oman, Pakistan, and Iran, and merged into one large plume over the water. 



According to NASA, plumes of desert dust affected populated areas around the basin, as winds carried the particles over Karachi, Mumbai, and numerous other cities and degraded air quality. In Karachi, Pakistan, visibility fell to about 1,600 feet.



Hiren Jethva, a Morgan State University scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that both the size of the plume and its unusual were “quite remarkable.”



Jethva explained that winter winds usually blow out from India toward the Arabian Sea, carrying various aerosols from local pollution and biomass burning. “However, the reversal of wind direction has likely occurred, bringing dust from the ocean to the Indian subcontinent."



On January 21, high winds kicked up dust and carried it toward the southeast. On January 22, the dust took a turn toward the east, eventually settling over western India, including the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan.



The dust lingered in the air for days. By January 24, the air quality index in Mumbai was “severe,” the highest category in the country’s index.&nbsp;



The Arabian Sea is also known as the Sea of Oman, and was historically known as the Persian Sea, the Erythraean Sea, the Indian Sea, Sindh Sea, and the Akhzar Sea.



The image was on January 22, 2022 by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Massive dust storm over the Arabian Sea

Today's Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features...

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in the southeastern corner of Spain.



"The park’s semi-arid climate and volcanic features contribute to the peculiar landscape along more than 60 kilometers of the Mediterranean coastline," reports NASA.



The Tabernas Desert, which is considered mainland Europe’s only desert, lies 30 kilometers to the north of Cabo de Gata-Níjar Park.



"Both the desert and the park are part of Spain’s Almería Province, the driest area of Europe. The region receives just 20 centimeters (8 inches) of rain per year, though the coastal areas are somewhat more humid," explains NASA. "There is enough moisture to support nearly 1,000 species of plants, such as the European fan palm and a thorny shrub known as jujube."



"When viewed from orbit, the park’s most obvious features are volcanic - that is, the 5 percent of the volcanic complex that rises above the water. The remaining 95 percent is hidden from view below the sea’s surface."



According to NASA, volcanic activity began here about 16 million years ago and ended about 8 million years ago.&nbsp;



"Wind and seawater have eroded some of the lava flows into smooth, strange shapes. Other structures just offshore have partially crumbled away. For instance, the tall, jagged rocks jutting from the water at Arrecife de la Sierena are thought to be remains of an old volcanic structure."



The image was captured on May 17, 2022 by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in Spain

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Capitol Reef National Park, located in south-central Utah in the heart of red rock country.



"It was named instead for two geologic features: the prominent white domes of Navajo Sandstone, which reminded early settlers of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.; and a formidable ridge of rocky cliffs that presented a barrier to travel," explains NASA.



"The settlers (some likely traveling in prairie schooners) likened it to the maritime navigational hazard of an ocean reef."



The ridge, which is known as Waterpocket Fold, runs north to south for 90 miles. Waterpocket Fold is a monocline, a a step-like fold in rock layers that have been folded up or down on one side.&nbsp;



"Between 75 million and 35 million years ago, the tectonic forces that uplifted the Rocky Mountains also buckled older rocks below Capitol Reef," reports NASA. "The rock layers above did not break, but bent, like a tablecloth draped over a table edge. The bend in this drape forms the Waterpocket Fold. More recently, rains, flash floods, and freeze-thaw cycles have eroded and sculpted the cliffs, canyons, bridges, and domes into what we see today."



"Capitol Reef tells a geologic story of hundreds of millions of years of deposition, uplift, and erosion - punctuated by episodes of volcanism and glaciation. The park boasts a nearly complete series of rock layers spanning from the late Permian Period (about 290 million years ago) to the end of the Mesozoic Era (66 million years ago). Deposited along and in a shallow sea and ancient delta, these rocks hold a nearly continuous record of life and environments here from before the rise of the dinosaurs through their demise."



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features a cluster of supercell thunderstorms that charged across the Great Plains on the morning of May 15, 2022. The storms carried strong winds, hail, torrential rainfall and extreme lightning through parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.



"When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired the natural-color image, a line of strong thunderstorms stretched from eastern Kansas to Little Rock, Arkansas," reports NASA.



"The weather front included multiple storm cells with features called overshooting tops and above-anvil cirrus plumes, key signs of particularly severe storms."



"Overshooting tops are dome-like protrusions rising from thunderstorm clouds and driven by convective updrafts. These cloud top features can rise past the tropopause and the anvil portion of a thunderstorm cloud, sometimes punching into the lower stratosphere."



"Above-anvil cirrus plumes are comparatively warm patches of cirrus clouds that get dragged into the lower stratosphere by intense updrafts and the gravity waves that they can generate. Cirrus plumes are typically warmer than the underlying anvil cloud because they mix with the air in the stratosphere, where air temperature warms with height."



Overshooting tops and above-anvil cirrus plumes are not produced by all thunderstorms. They are usually associated with storms that create the most severe weather.&nbsp;



“Overshooting tops and above-anvil cirrus plumes are often a sign that a thunderstorm will produce hail, tornadoes, extreme lightning, and destructive winds,” said NASA atmospheric scientist Kristopher Bedka. “We know this because an especially intense updraft produced the patterns we see in the satellite imagery.”&nbsp;



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Supercell thunderstorms over the Great Plains

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features a severe dust storm in Iraq. Dust storms are most common in this region in the late spring and summer, triggered by seasonal winds such as the “shamal” that blows in from the northwest.&nbsp;



In the past two weeks in the Middle East, poor air quality from two major storms has sent thousands of people to the hospital for asthma and other respiratory diseases.



"The skies above Baghdad, Najaf, Sulaimaniyah, and other cities turned orange as visibility dropped to a few hundred meters. Several airports were closed during the dust events, and schools were closed nationwide. Government offices were shuttered in seven of the Iraq’s 18 provinces, and several governors declared states of emergency,' reports NASA.



According to news media reports, Iraq has endured at least eight dust storms in the past six weeks. Recent studies have shown that these events have become more frequent in Iraq.&nbsp;



"The country has been facing drought conditions in recent years, as well as land-use changes and overuse that mean there is more loose soil available to be lofted into the atmosphere," says NASA. "The World Bank cited Iraq as one of the countries most vulnerable to desertification and climate change."



The image was captured on May 16, 2022 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Aqua satellite.&nbsp;



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Iraq faces an increasing number of severe dust storms

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> (OSU) has shed more light on the structure and functioning of plastins – a type of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-cells-message-each-other-using-rna-and-escort-proteins/">proteins</a> found in many life forms (from yeast and plants to animals and humans) that have a role in ensuring that various cells move or maintain their shape. By binding to and bundling other proteins, plastins can be considered the bones and muscles of cells. Better understanding what drives their activities could help explain their surprising links to diseases such as cancers, congenital osteoporosis, or spinal muscular atrophy.



Scientists described their discoveries about plastin behavior in terms of a “work-life balance” metaphor. While in their “at-home” mode, the protein’s two main segments strongly bond to each other, they are often forced to separate when their bundling responsibilities in the cellular “workplace” increase, such as when cells start to migrate. According to the researchers, if their structure experiences unexpected changes, plastins keep doing aggressive bundling work, even if it is not needed anymore. Although experts discovered at least one mistimed enzymatic activity that seemed to contribute to this problem, further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind the switch between the protein's “weekend” and “workaholic” modes.



“We need to know this information so we can figure out how to regulate plastins,” said study senior author&nbsp;Dmitri Kudryashov, an associate professor of&nbsp;Chemistry and Biochemistry at OSU.&nbsp; “Because plastins are involved in disease, we see the manifestation of that, but we don’t know how precisely mutations lead to disease. In cancer, or certain autoimmune reactions, knowing exactly what plastins do and how to control their activity could be highly beneficial. If we could manage to inhibit this protein in cancer, it’s likely the cells would become less invasive.”



Actins – abundant proteins helping cells unite their contents, maintain their shape, divide, and migrate – are clustered together by plastins configured with two binding sites, each of which can bind to actin filaments. However, when these binding domains are tightly joined, they can connect only weakly to actins. If cells are stable, connecting in this way is sufficient, but when cells start to migrate, actins pushed in the direction of cell movement are situated in a less organized way that requires strong connections to plastins. In such a case, plastin’s binding domains have to separate from each other to form a stronger bond to actins. Eventually, actins shifting away from the cell’s edge no longer need a strong plastin bond, so plastin can return to its self-engaged “weekend” mode.



By introducing a mutation to plastin which mimics molecular changes detected in cancer cells, the scientists found that such a mutation prolonged plastin binding sites’ disengagement, and caused plastins to keep try to bundle up actins that don’t need to be bundled anymore. In such a case, plastin’s lack of response to what cells need could have undesirable downstream effects.



Further research is needed to clarify which factors may lead to this “irrational” behavior of plastins in order to shed more light on how these essential proteins contribute to disease.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-022-00771-1">Nature Structural &amp; Molecular Biology</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Plastins stuck in “workaholic” modes can lead to disease

A new study led by the Ohio State University (OSU)...

Coral,Reef,Underwater,Panorama,With,School,Of,Colorful,Tropical,Fish.

Coral reefs are amazing, thriving ecosystems built of living geology and a fantastical array of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deforestation-threatens-two-new-fish-species-with-extinction/">fishes</a>, bivalves, cnidarians, echinoderms and more. Diving into one or snorkeling above one is a magical experience that makes the human world pale by comparison.&nbsp;



If this isn’t enough, coral reefs also provide communities and the world with seafood, tourism dollars, and storm barriers. Entire islands are built of old reef systems. Medicines have been and continue to be developed from chemicals found in IUCN ecosystems.&nbsp;



Unfortunately, these enchanted places are diminished and disappearing, due in large part to rising temperatures among other threats. If temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, it is estimated that coral reefs will be extinct within 80 years.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Entire reefs that I used to dive and snorkel on are gone. There are species you don’t see on the reef anymore. Change is happening now,” said Dan Holstein, a professor in the Department of Oceanography &amp; Coastal Sciences at <a href="https://www.lsu.edu/">Louisiana State University</a>.



Holstein and collaborators created an open-source computer model to predict how warming ocean waters may harm and destroy coral populations in the Western Atlantic. This region includes the Florida Keys, Bahamas and the Caribbean.&nbsp;



Ocean warming is increasing the cases of coral bleaching, when symbiotic algae that coral polyps require for life are displaced, leaving dying and colorless corals behind. Although this is the inevitable outcome for increased temperatures, Holstein does not believe coral extinction is inevitable. Instead, this is a call for action.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This model predicts that ocean warming will reduce the ability for migrating coral larvae to replenish reefs that have bleached and died. The model doesn’t seal the fate of coral reefs, but it is a big wake-up call,” said Holstein. “Thermal stress is not the only problem corals face, but it is considered to be the biggest, And how much carbon we put in the atmosphere is something we can decide. We can actually do something about it.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-022-02252-9">Coral Reefs</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Corals need our help to survive global warming

Coral reefs are amazing, thriving ecosystems built of living geology...

Junipers,,Berries,

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/how-to-be-smart-while-foraging-for-food/">foraging</a> – the activity of finding, gathering, and harvesting wild plants. However, since many of the plants found in the wild are highly poisonous, although they look similar to various edible plants, knowing which plant species to avoid and which to gather and consume is crucial. Geoff Dann, a British writer and foraging teacher, has now outlined some of the biggest risks novice foragers are facing when searching for wild plants.&nbsp;



According to Dann, the best advice is never to eat anything found in the wild that we are not absolutely sure what it is. “I guess the most important rule is ‘Pay attention to what you are doing,’ followed by ‘If in doubt, leave it out,’” he said.



Dann warned foragers about four plant species – dead man’s fingers, lords and ladies, foxglove, and deadly nightshade – which, even if they look similar to other edible species, are in fact very dangerous, and can cause severe illness and death.



Dead men’s fingers (Oenanthe crocata) has toxic roots and stems that look very much like parsley, and even more poisonous roots which look and smell exactly like parsnips. Consuming this plant can trigger spasmodic convulsions, often followed by sudden death. Similarly, lords and ladies (Arum maculatum), a plant whose leaves closely resemble edible sorrel and wild garlic, can cause intense pain and irritation upon contact with the soft tissue of the mouth and throat.



Another plant Dann warns foragers about is the common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), which is often mistaken for members of the edible borage family. However, since it contains glycosides, the foxglove can cause skin irritation on contact, as well as headaches, vomiting, convulsions, delirium, and cardiac arrest if consumed. Finally, the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladona), which sports attractive and delicious-looking black berries, leads to severe disruptions of the nervous system and eventually death by respiratory arrest if consumed.



“Identifying plants requires much more than just visual properties – smell, habitat, and location are all important. If you are going to learn how to forage, then you need to learn how to identify wild species yourself, and you need to know what can be confused with what,” concluded Dann.



In his recent book - <a href="https://www.geoffdann.co.uk/edible-plants-the-book/">Edible Plants: A forager’s guide to the wild plants and seaweeds of Britain, Ireland and temperate Europe</a>&nbsp;– Dann describes in great detail a large number of edible plants, including the black nightshade, the Japanese knotweed, or the three-cornered leek.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Toxic plants can be easily confused with edible ones

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in foraging –...

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The Vatnajökull ice cap in southeast Iceland Today&#8217;s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features a Copernicus Sentinel-2 view of the Vatnajökull ice cap in southeast Iceland.
Vatnajökull is the biggest glacier in Europe, covering an area of more than 3,200 square miles. 
The ice cap has about 30 outlet glaciers, many of which are shrinking as a result of rising temperatures. One of these glaciers, Vatnajökull, is positioned over some of the most active volcanoes in Iceland such as Bárðarbunga and Grímsvötn.
On the southern side of Vatnajökull, the Jökulsárlón glacial lake has grown to become Iceland&#8217;s deepest lake. Because it connects with the ocean, the lake contains both seawater and freshwater. 
The island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, therefore being  of the world&#8217;s oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Also there is  a period of civil strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Iceland also followed Norway&#8217;s integration into that union, coming under Danish rule after Sweden&#8217;s secession from the union in 1523.  The capital and largest city is Reykjavík
Video Credit: ESA  
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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer