Another dust storm swept across the Taklimakan Desert on March 19, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite took this picture the same day. In this image, pale beige dust obscures the view of the desert basin. Overlying the dust storm are white clouds. Clouds also fringe the basin to the northwest, southwest, and southeast.
According to a news report in the Mail & Guardian Online in February 2006, China was starting to see positive results from its tree-planting campaign to alleviate desertification. The Chinese government estimated that 30 percent of the country’s population, or 400 million people, faced threats to their livelihoods from the spread of the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.
