It's monsoon season In Phoenix.
How many times do I have to tell you, don't fly thru those Haboobs !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55869056@N07/5910390828/

Above post is only 50% "tongue-in-cheek". The other 50% is serious.
It only takes a few minutes to get a good sandblasting. IMHO, the paint wear being concentrated around skin seams suggest the plane did encounter a duststorm

Any PMUA metal, sorry but the ones I flew on were dirty/dingy/smelly much like any AA plane. Sad that PMCO planes are starting to look/smell the same

Looks about average for a regional A/C (have seen an Air Wisconsin plane flying USX that has a bad issue with patchy paint on the whole fuselage). I've noticed that most CRJs have an issue with paint on rivets (something with prep at the paint shop?). Edges are also a bit of pain depending on where they are.

The three tape stripes look like security seals, or residue thereof, on the door for the fwd electrical compartment.

No tape, all planes have similar strips of metal (or some other conductive material) on their fiberglass nosecones to conduct static electricity or lighting to the metal skin and into the plane's grounding / discharge system. Usually they are painted to match but here it appears that paint has worn off.

Disclaimer: I'm not a pilot or mechanic so the technical details may be a bit off, but I am certian it's not tape

I think you and the OP are focusing on 2 different areas. You are catching the lightning diverter strips on the radome and the OP is commenting on the three whitish strip looking marks just behind the radome in the dark blue paint area.

The Atlas Air plane

...It's tape.

The lightning diverter strips are the long/narrow pieces on the forward radome (the only part that is properly painted - radomes will pick up moisture and delaminate if not properly painted/sealed). There are some silver strips behind the radome that look an awful lot like speed tape.

I'm not sure what the tape would be applied over in that area, but using tape to repair aircraft is actually quite common. For minor damage to secondary structure, most aircraft manuals allow the application of "High Speed Tape", essentially a thick aluminum foil with ridiculously strong adhesive on one side, as a temporary repair. The tape repairs usually are only good for a few weeks and require inspection daily, but they often save a ton of time when the aircraft would otherwise be on the ground waiting for a spare part.

Yet, you would not find a Continental Express plane ever looking like that. One thing about CO, they kept up their planes and made sure ExpressJet kept their planes to the same standards.

I think this plane can give the plane above a run for it's money. It's the Ghetto Express which comes to Dallas every once in a while.

http://youtu.be/qR5U19FLT_g?hd=1 :(