Southern Argentinian Dust Storm
Earlier this week, a significant dust storm impacted the Chubut and Santa Cruz Provinces of southern Argentina. A strong low-pressure system, initially located in the South Pacific Ocean, traversed through the Andes Mountain Range and exited into the South Atlantic Ocean, which brought hurricane force winds that supported the development of the dust storm. Widespread dust was picked up from the interior of Argentina, then lofted eastward and dispersed over Golfo San Jorge and the South Atlantic Ocean. The upper-level water vapor animation from GOES-19 (shown below) shows the migration of the low pressure system (spinning cyclonically) over a two day period.
GOES-19 6.2 um from ~00Z, 17 November 2025 to ~00Z, 19 November 2025
During a similar time period, the dust can be spotted in bright magenta and pink colors within the GOES Dust RGB. The dust was initially located over the Argentinian interior, then advected eastward over the South Atlantic Ocean.
GOES-19 Dust RGB from ~10Z, 17 November 2025 to ~00Z, 19 November 2025
The aerosols were also captured by the GOES GeoColor product, depicted in light brown and tan colors, during the daytime hours of 17 November 2025.
GOES-19 GeoColor from ~10Z to 21Z, 17 November 2025
Four daytime overpasses from JPSS satellites also observed the dust plumes at high spatial resolution (750-m), provided by the VIIRS True Color RGB imagery. Refer to the imagery animation below.
JPSS VIIRS True Color RGB from 1734Z-1915Z, 17 November 2025