Earth from Space - Image Description

STS066-095-095 Dust Storm, Gobi Desert, China November 1994
This high oblique, southeasterly view shows a large dust storm in progress (light-color, east-west swath) along the southern margin of the Gobi Desert. Tremendous quantities of soil are transported from the deserts of west central China eastward. The westerly winds carry fine-grained silt from western China towards east China where large deposits of loess have created vertical cliffs that are several hundred feet high in the vicinity of the Huang Ho (formerly called the Yellow River). Recognizable physical landforms in this image include the Helan Mountains (small dark area - upper left); a very small section of the Huang Ho (light colored linear feature east of Helan Mountains); and the northeast - southwest aligned Yabral Mountains (elongated, dark feature slightly above and right of center).

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.