A river of dust stretched hundreds of kilometers over China on April 28, 2005. The dust storm originated in the Gobi Desert near the border with Mongolia. Blown by powerful winds from Mongolia, the dust crossed the Luliang Mountains, the peaks of which divide the tan cloud that filled the lower valleys, and blanketed the North China Plain, a highly populated region where several large cities, including Beijing, are located. This image of the storm was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on the morning of April 28. Such dust storms occur frequently in the spring when winds blow out of the north.
The large image provided above has a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions, including MODIS’ maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
