Suggested Searches

1 min read

Dust Storm in the Taklimakan Desert

Instruments:
2009-04-19 00:00:00
April 19, 2009

Dust continued blowing eastward out of the Taklimakan Desert on April 19, 2008, although the plumes were less intense than they had been two days earlier. Besides covering almost the entire desert basin, dust plumes extended hundreds of kilometers eastward. North of the thickest dust plumes, skies northeast of the Taklimakan Desert appeared slightly hazy. Northwest of the desert basin, however, skies were crystal clear, with snowy mountain peaks contrasting with the deep blue lake in Kyrgyzstan. This natural-color image captured by the The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

References & Resources

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

Dust Storm Sweeps Over Mali
2 min read

At a time of year when dust storm activity winds down, a plume of dust blanketed parts of the West…

Article
Rare, Widespread Snow in the Atacama Desert
4 min read

Back-to-back winter storms in August 2026 brought snowfall to northern Chile, from the Andes to near the Pacific coast.

Article
The Otherworldly Geology of Vasquez Rocks
4 min read

Layers of sedimentary rock that jut from the Soledad Basin at surprising angles have long enthralled television and film producers,…

Article