China’s largest, hottest, and driest desert sits in the
westernmost part of the country. Filling the Tarim Basin, Dust
blew out of the Taklimakan Desert in early November 2012. The
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on November 2,
2012. Part of the Taklimakan Desert appears along the left edge
of the image. Dust plumes—thick enough in places to completely
hide the land surface—blow away from the basin’s eastern margin.
- World Wildlife Fund, McGinley, M. (2007) Taklamakan Desert.
Encyclopedia of Earth. Accessed November 2, 2012. NASA image
courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA
GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott. - Terra - MODIS