Earth from Area: Singing dunes and mysterious lakes

This Copernicus Sentinel-1 picture options a part of the Badain Jaran Desert in northwestern China.

Zoom in to discover this picture at its full decision.

With an space of about 49 000 sq km, Badain Jaran is China’s third largest desert. It lies inside the bigger Gobi Desert within the Alxa Plateau at about 1200 m above sea degree. The distant Badain Jaran Desert shows a different panorama of gorgeous pure wonders, resembling wind-eroded landforms, oases and noteworthy towering dunes interspersed with desert lakes.

On this radar picture from September 2025, the ripple impact denotes the excessive density of parallel sand dunes, together with a number of the tallest on the planet, with one reaching the file peak of 460 m – increased than the Empire State Constructing. Though most dunes are dynamic resulting from shifting sand, the tallest megadunes are often stationary with a stable core and in winter they’re coated with snow.

Badain Jaran is likely one of the few locations on the planet the place the ‘singing sand dunes’ phenomenon happens. Singing sands are generated when the desert wind pulls the highest layer of sand off the layer under, ensuing within the sand emitting a pointy, loud sound that may last as long as a number of minutes. The ‘singing’ is most outstanding within the dry, scorching summer time when the wind is powerful and slopes are steep. 

The Badain Jaran Desert can be well-known for internet hosting over 100 lakes that may be seen within the picture as black spots nestled among the many dunes. They’re both freshwater or extraordinarily saline lakes and provides the desert its identify, which suggests ‘mysterious lakes’ in Mongolian. Their origin in actual fact remains to be debated though they’re believed to be fed by underground springs.

The big variety of landscapes results in many various habitats and therefore a excessive degree of biodiversity. Regardless of being a sandy desert, Badain Jaran is house to considerable plant and animal life, and its lakes additionally supply a beneficial surroundings for a lot of aquatic species.