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Reflectance observations from the high-resolution visible (HRV) channel of the SEVIRI instrument, onboard Meteosat Second Generation, have shown to be sensitive to dust over bright surfaces, i.e. bright desert sand. This was observed when deriving the cloud index from the HRV channel for dusty days over the desert environment of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sensitivity of the HRV channel to dust could then be used to derive an index giving an indication of the dust conditions in the atmosphere. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose an index, the interception index, for dust detection over bright desert surfaces in the UAE using the HRV SEVIRI channel. The ability of the interception index to estimate the direct normal irradiance is also investigated.