English: China’s Taklimakan Desert’s vast expanse of about 130,000 square miles (337,000 square kilometers) makes it one of the world’s largest deserts. The arid region is known for desolation and shifting sands – almost 85% of the Taklimakan Desert is made up of high dunes that shift with the wind. In the spring and summer, when winds are especially strong and unpredictable, vast dust storms are common.

On March 5, 2018, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of dust storm over the Taklimakan Desert.

The Tarim Basin, which houses the desert, is bordered by the Tian Shan mountains to the north and the Kunlun Shan mountains to the south. The basin opens up on its east side, but that’s not necessarily an escape route for dust. The prevailing low-altitude winds come from the east, keeping most dust below 5 kilometers—about the height of the mountain ranges—and confined to the desert. In spring, however, strong surface winds can lift dust up to heights of about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). These particles can then be carried by higher-altitude winds from the west until they blow across China and sometimes even across the Pacific.