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August 8, 2025 - Dasht-e Lut, Iran
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Located in southeastern Iran, the Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) stretches over more than 7,000 square miles of extremely arid, wind-scraped landscape. The constant harsh conditions over hundreds if not thousands of years have created a stunning landscape filled with stony deserts, massive fields of dunes, and some of the most stunning examples of aeolian yardangs that exist on Earth.
Aeolian yardangs are huge, corrugated ridges of stone that have been created by natural “sandblasting” as strong, nearly relentless winds pick up desert sand and whip it across exposed bedrock. Over time, this action of wind and sand opens up corridors in the tall stone, leaving both corridors and stone ridges oriented parallel with the dominating prevailing wind. According the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Dasht-e Lut (a World Heritage Site), features yardangs that rise up to 155 meters (500 feet) high with rides that can run as far as 40 kilometers (25 miles).
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the Dasht-e Lut on August 3, 2025. The landscape in the west is dominated by the dramatic parallel rows of yardangs. An oval-shaped area in the east is a large sand sea, the Rig-e Yallan, an area filled not only with loose desert sand but also with large, rippling sand dunes.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 8/3/2025
Resolutions:
1km (62.3 KB), 500m (62.3 KB), 250m (136.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Located in southeastern Iran, the Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) stretches over more than 7,000 square miles of extremely arid, wind-scraped landscape. The constant harsh conditions over hundreds if not thousands of years have created a stunning landscape filled with stony deserts, massive fields of dunes, and some of the most stunning examples of aeolian yardangs that exist on Earth.
Aeolian yardangs are huge, corrugated ridges of stone that have been created by natural “sandblasting” as strong, nearly relentless winds pick up desert sand and whip it across exposed bedrock. Over time, this action of wind and sand opens up corridors in the tall stone, leaving both corridors and stone ridges oriented parallel with the dominating prevailing wind. According the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Dasht-e Lut (a World Heritage Site), features yardangs that rise up to 155 meters (500 feet) high with rides that can run as far as 40 kilometers (25 miles).
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the Dasht-e Lut on August 3, 2025. The landscape in the west is dominated by the dramatic parallel rows of yardangs. An oval-shaped area in the east is a large sand sea, the Rig-e Yallan, an area filled not only with loose desert sand but also with large, rippling sand dunes.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 8/3/2025
Resolutions:
1km (62.3 KB), 500m (62.3 KB), 250m (136.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
