Image of the Taklamakan Desert in China’s Tarim Basin acquired on November 11, 2023 by the MODIS sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
Flanked by mountain ranges on three sides, the northwest China basin is regularly subject to dust storms.
The Taklamakan Desert, located in the Tarim Basin of China, is one of the driest and driest areas on the planet. Flanked by mountain ranges on three sides, it is parched by rain shadow. In fact, many parties receive between 10 and 40 millimeters (less than two inches) of rain per year.
Climate and environmental challenges
From November to March, the weather is particularly dry and passing weather systems often kick up walls of dust that cross the basin. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor on NASAAqua’s Aqua satellite acquired the image at the top of this article on November 11, 2023, as a cold front passed through the region and blew dust eastward. The storm dropped snow in the Tien Shan range to the north, visible among the clouds in the upper left of the image.
Fight against desertification
To combat the spread of deserts and reduce the number of dust storms, Chinese authorities have embarked on a tree-planting campaign to establish forests on the edges of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. The project, called the Three North Protection Belt or the Great Green Wall, began in 1978. Since then, tens of billions of trees have been planted; the goal is to plant around 100 billion by 2050.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using NASA MODIS data EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.
