Gobi Desert Shares its Dust

Skies were clear in the Gobi Desert on April 7, 2006, but the region was blanketed by a massive dust storm over the next few days. Waves of dust washed out of the desert and spread across eastern China and into the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

South Korea was also hit with a dust storm in mid-April, which news reports say was the worst the country had seen in four years.

These before-and-after images show the storm that blew out of deserts in north-central China on April 10, 2006. The top image, captured by NASA's Terra satellite on April 7, 2006, shows the landscape of north-central China, including two large, sandy deserts that are part of the Gobi Desert region.

Just a few days later, an image from NASA's Aqua satellite shows that the area was completely hidden by a wave of bright dust that reached beyond the Yellow River.

Prevailing winds from spring storms whip up Gobi dust, sending it eastward, where it can spread all the way to the United States. The storms can be hazardous to public health both in terms of air quality and visibility, and can devastate croplands and contaminate sensitive electronic equipment.

Dust storms in China are on the rise, probably as a result of deforestation, overgrazing, and drought. The Chinese government has undertaken a large reforestation effort to combat the spread of deserts and to mitigate the effects of dust storms, particularly around urban areas such as Beijing.

--Bjorn Carey

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Credit: MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC