Watch as a Massive Sandstorm Sweeps Across a Region Nearly as Large as the Contiguous United States

A massive sandstorm that began April 1, 2015 on the Arabian peninsula spread over the next five days into Pakistan and India. These images were taken by the Suomi NPP satellite's VIIRS instrument between April 1 and 6, 2015. (Source: NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory.) It began relatively modestly as a few plumes of sand blowing out of the northwestern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. Within less than a day, it had transformed itself into a monster. Or, more accurately, a gargantuan "haboob" — a sandstorm that ultimately swept down the entire peninsula and all the way across the Arabian Sea to Pakistan and India.