Dust raked across the bowl of the Taklimakan Desert in western China on March 31, 2010. The desert is a common source of dust, producing frequent storms in the spring and summer. In this natural-color image, the pale tan airborne dust is textured, reflecting turbulence in the air. It is not clear from this image exactly where the dust originated. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired the image on the afternoon of March 31.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
