In China's Tarim Basin, dry terrain and changing wind directions bring violent sandstorms in spring. NASA satellites have captured stunning images of pillars of dust rising and spiraling across valleys, with the data revealing how solar-driven convection currents lift particles into the sky. Scientists are tracking long-term changes in these storms, which are not just local events but have global impacts on air quality and climate.

Satellites tracking rising dust from China's desert plateaus are providing clues about climate change, health hazards and climate impacts. (Details below)

Spring is the peak season for dust storms in China's Tarim Basin, especially in the southern part of this arid and barren lowland. This time of year, a change in wind direction brings strong winds and storm systems from the northwest. In early spring, the ground in the area is exceptionally dry and vegetation is sparse. Each morning, sunlight rapidly heats the exposed land, triggering convection currents in the afternoon that sweep dust into the air.

The image below shows a large dust storm that swept through the basin on March 27, 2025. The image was taken by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA's Terra satellite at 12:23 pm local time (04:23 UTC). The image at the top of this page is a closer view from the same day - taken about an hour later by the OLI (Ocean Land Imager) on Landsat 8 - revealing a gap in the dust layer over the southern part of the basin. Through this gap, part of the Tekirik Mountains—a sub-range of the Kunlun Mountains, whose snow-capped peaks reach over 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) above sea level—can be seen.


Dust storms sweep across China's Tarim Basin every spring, and satellite images show how changes in sunlight, topography and wind direction trigger violent dust movements.

The shape of the finger-like dust protrusions appears to reflect the underlying topography. These bumps line up with the underlying valleys and help control the flow of dust in the air. The dust may "rise on its own" over the course of a day. Ralph Kahn, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and emeritus scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, explained that this may occur when the sun heats recently active near-surface dust, thereby promoting convection and helping the dust particles rise higher into the atmosphere.

Geostationary observation data from Japan's Himawari-9 satellite support this explanation, showing that dust spreads upward toward Mount Tekirik in hourly increments throughout the day, eventually obscuring the view of the mountain in the evening. A similar process occurred on other days during the dust storm in late March, including March 28 and 29.

Since the early 2000s, researchers have observed a 1.5% annual decline in the amount of atmospheric dust detected by MODIS sensors in the region. "This trend is likely related to changes in spring (March, April and May)" rather than other seasons, said Yu Hongbin, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He added that the change could be related to changes in wind speed or wind shear, vegetation cover or soil moisture.

The Taklimakan Desert is one of the driest and most barren regions on Earth. The Tarim Basin is surrounded by mountains on three sides and is cast in a rain shadow, with some areas receiving less than 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) of annual rainfall.

Dust storms can transport fine particles, bacteria and viruses to densely populated areas downwind and invade the human respiratory system, causing public health problems. Dust storms also affect Earth's climate by scattering and absorbing incoming solar radiation and changing the properties of clouds.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison using MODIS data from NASA's EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Compiled from /ScitechDaily