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Winter winds lofted clouds of dust from the Sahara Desert, carrying it north toward the Mediterranean and dispersing it widely across Europe in March 2026. When the dust combined with moisture-laden weather systems, a dirty rain fell in parts of Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.

This animation highlights the concentration and movement of dust throughout the region from March 1 to March 9. It depicts dust column mass density—a measure of the amount of dust contained in a column of air—produced with a version of the GEOS (Goddard Earth Observing System) model. The model integrates satellite data with mathematical equations that represent physical processes in the atmosphere.

The animation shows dust plumes originating in northwestern Africa being blown both to the west across the Atlantic Ocean and north toward the Mediterranean. As plumes spread throughout Western Europe over several days, people observed hazy skies from southern England, where sunrises and sunsets took on an eerie glow, to the Alps in Switzerland and Italy, where a dust layer encroached on the Matterhorn.

Not all of the dust remained aloft. Storms encountered some of the dust, causing particles to fall to the ground with rain and coat surfaces with a brownish residue. A low-pressure system, named Storm Regina by Portugal’s weather service, moved across the Iberian Peninsula and brought so-called blood rain to southern and eastern Spain, along with parts of France and the southern UK in early March, according to news reports.

Over the Mediterranean, areas of “dusty cirrus” clouds developed higher in the atmosphere, where dust particles can act as condensation nuclei for ice crystals, according to MeteoSwiss, Switzerland’s Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology. Scientists are studying these clouds to better understand their formation and how they affect weather, climate, and even solar power generation.

In a new analysis, researchers used NASA’s MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2), observations from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), and other satellite products to parse the effect of airborne Saharan dust on solar power in Hungary. They found that photovoltaic performance dropped to 46 percent on high-dust days, compared with 75 percent or more on low-dust days. They determined the greatest losses occurred because dust enhanced the presence and reflectance of cirrus clouds and reduced the amount of radiation that reached solar panels.

Some research suggests more frequent and intense wintertime dust events have affected Europe in recent years. Researchers have proposed several factors contributing to these outbreaks, including drier-than-normal conditions in northwestern Africa and weather patterns more often driving winds north from the Sahara.

NASA Earth Observatory animation by Lauren Dauphin, using GEOS-FP data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

References & Resources

• Barcelona Dust Regional Center (2026, March) Daily Dust Products. Accessed March 11, 2026.
• FOX Weather (2026, March 9) Blood rain, a rare weather phenomenon, falls across southern Europe. Accessed March 11, 2026.
• IQAir (2026, March 6) Southwest Europe Air Quality Alert: Southwest Europe Dust. Accessed March 11, 2026.
• Met Office (2026, March 4) What is ‘blood rain’ and will we see it this week? Accessed March 11, 2026.
• MeteoSwiss (2026, March 4) He’s here again, the visitor from North Africa. Accessed March 11, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2022, March 31) Dusty Storm Clouds Over Europe. Accessed March 11, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2026) Dust/Ash/Smoke. Accessed March 11, 2026.
• Seifert, A., et al. (2023) Aerosol–cloud–radiation interaction during Saharan dust episodes: the dusty cirrus puzzle. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23, 6409–6430.
• Varga, G., et al. (2026) Saharan dust and cirrus clouds: Dominating indirect impact of dust events on photovoltaic energy generation in Hungary (2019–2024). Solar Energy, 307.

By USGS Landsat Missions 

The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals or teams using satellite or aerial remote sensing that make outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth (land, oceans, and air), educating the next generation of scientists, informing decision-makers, or supporting natural or human-induced disaster response. Both national and international nominations are welcome.

The award is sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was established in 1974 to honor the memory of Dr. William T. Pecora, former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Under Secretary, Department of the Interior.  

Dr. Pecora was a motivating force behind the establishment of a program for civil remote sensing of the Earth from space.  His early vision and support helped establish what we know today as the Landsat satellite program. 

Nominations for the 2026 award will be accepted until May 29, 2026.

Visit the William T. Pecora Awards webpage for eligibility requirements and the nomination process.  

NASA’s University Innovation (UI) project funds university-led innovation to address the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s system-level challenges via independent, NASA-alternate-path, multi-disciplinary awards.

Strategic Goals

The UI portfolio’s strategic goals in descending order of importance are:

1.    Assist in achieving aviation outcomes defined in the ARMD Strategic Implementation Plan through NASA-complementary research.
2.    Transition research results to an appropriate range of stakeholders that leads to a continuation of the research.
3.    Provide broad opportunities for students at different levels, including graduate and undergraduate, to participate in aeronautics research.

Portfolio Elements

The UI project’s strategic goals are achieved through two opportunities that are available through NASA Research Announcement awards.

University Leadership Initiative (ULI)
ULI provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges, defining interdisciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact. By addressing the most complex challenges associated with ARMD’s strategic thrusts, universities will accelerate progress toward achievement of high impact outcomes while leveraging their capability to bring together the best and brightest minds across many disciplines. To transition their research, principal investigators are expected to actively explore transition opportunities and pursue follow-on funding from stakeholders and industrial partners during the course of the award.

University Students Research Challenge (USRC)
USRC seeks to develop novel concepts with the potential to create new capabilities in aeronautics by stimulating aeronautics research in the U.S. student community. USRC provides students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for aeronautics projects that also raise cost sharing funds using crowdfunding platforms. By including the process of creating and preparing a crowdfunding campaign, USRC can act as a teaching accelerator to help students develop entrepreneurial skills.

Gateways To Blue Skies
Gateways to Blue Skies expands engagement between universities and NASA’s University Innovation Project, industry, and government partners by providing an opportunity for multi-disciplinary teams of students from all academic levels (i.e., freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate) to tackle significant challenges and opportunities for the aviation industry through a new project theme each year. The competition is guided by a push toward new technologies as well as environmentally and socially conscious aviation.

UI Project Page, University Innovation (UI) Tech Talks

This March 3, 2026, image combines views from ESA’s (European Space Agency) Euclid and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to feature one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies 4,400 light-years away in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure.

See what this observation reveals about this planetary nebula.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov

Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute

Earth planning date: Friday, March 6, 2026

Curiosity is in the last stage of its exploration of the spiderweb-like boxwork unit. This stage consists of exploring the eastern and southern borders of this terrain. There were two multi-sol plans assembled this week. The previous plan put Curiosity at a site on the eastern extent of the boxwork unit with bedrock that allowed for brushing and in-place measurements with APXS and MAHLI of the bedrock target “Infiernillo.” The ChemCam also took a LIBS chemical measurement of this target as well as a nodular-rich piece of bedrock assigned the name “Humahuaca.” MAHLI was tasked to image a pitted vertical rock face which was dubbed “Timboy Chaco” (part of which is shown in the MAHLI color image accompanying this report). Mastcam color mosaics and ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics were also collected to characterize nearby terrain including a butte to the south and the geologic contact between the boxwork terrain and the adjacent layered, light-toned unit.

A midweek drive put the rover even closer to the eastern edge of the boxwork unit and set it up for two or more drives to the southern edge of the boxwork. The workspace present for Friday planning included bedrock exposures and a dark-toned float rock. The float rock was large enough for in-situ observation by APXS, and it was also targeted for up-close imaging by MAHLI and a measurement by ChemCam to observe its reflectance properties. Some other dark float rocks observed by Curiosity in the past year have been hypothesized as being stony meteorites (chondrites). Measuring the chemistry and reflectance of this dark rock, named “Thola,” will allow the team to determine if it is native to Mars or a meteorite from beyond. The Friday plan also included ChemCam remote chemistry measurements of the smooth bedrock target “Valle Fertil” and a nodular bedrock target “Norte Grande.” The plan also included Mastcam mosaics of light-toned bedrock across the eastern contact of the boxwork unit to assess sedimentary structures and determine stratigraphic relationships, observations of smaller troughs in the regolith, and other mosaics of nearby ridges as well as a two-frame mosaic of the dark float rock Thola and another dark-toned pebble.

The plan concludes with a drive toward the southern border of the boxwork unit. Given that this southern contact is approximately 100 meters (about 109 yards) away, it will likely require two drives.

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