Acquired June 12, 2010, this natural-color image shows camel-colored sand dunes marching past Mongolia’s Har Nuur.
Published Jun 27, 2010
Fantastic dunes stand alongside one of the world’s largest internally draining river systems.
Published Sep 29, 2019
Linear dunes and ephemeral streams converge on the eastern margin of the Simpson Desert in a region known for its floods.
Published Sep 15, 2012
Har Nuur (“Black Lake”) is located in western Mongolia’s Valley of Lakes, part of a system of closed basins stretching across central Asia. These basins are the remnants of larger paleolakes (paleo- means “ancient”) that began to shrink approximately five thousand years ago as regional climate became drier. This oblique (looking at an angle) astronaut photograph captures the dynamic nature of the landscape of Har Nuur. The lake is encircled by sand dune fields that encroach on the lower slopes of the Tobhata Mountains to the west and south. Gaps in the mountains have been exploited by sand dunes moving eastward, indicating westerly winds. The most striking example is a series of dunes entering Har Nuur along its southwestern shoreline.
Published Oct 16, 2006
In the desert, a lake shows a long fight between water, wind, and climate.
Published Feb 20, 2012
Winds shape the sands that were left behind by an ancient river.
Published Jun 4, 2012
Ephemeral salt lakes and their mineral deposits add color and texture to the arid Australian Outback.
Published Oct 30, 2017
This detailed true-color image from February 24, 2011, shows the variety of sand dunes that make up the Algodones Dunes in southeastern California.
Published May 27, 2011
This photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station highlights a sand dune field within the Burqin-Haba River-Jimunai Desert near the borders of China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
Published Sep 19, 2011
Layers of dunes march across a sand sea in the east-central Tenéré Desert of Niger in this astronaut photo from December 1, 2009.
Published Dec 28, 2009
A pale, dry riverbed cuts through the red dunes of the Namib Sand Sea.
Published Jan 25, 2010
