English: This photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station highlights a sand dune field within the Burqin-Haba River-Jimunai Desert near the borders of China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The dune field (approximately 32 kilometres long) is located immediately west-northwest of the city of Burqin (not shown), and is part of the Junggar Basin, a region of active petroleum production in north-western China. The Irtysh River—with associated wetlands and riparian vegetation (appearing grey-green in the image) —flows from its headwaters in the Altay Mountains towards Siberia (right to left across the image).

Tan, linear dunes at image centre (on the south side of the Irtysh River) dominate the view. The dunes are formed from mobile barchan (crescent-shaped) dunes moving from left to right in this view. The barchans eventually merge to form the large, linear dunes which can reach 50 to 100 meters in height. Sand moving along the southern edge of the field appears to be feeding a south-eastern lobe with a separate population of linear dunes (image lower right).

The Burqin-Haba River-Jimunai Desert area also includes darker gravel-covered surfaces that form pavements known locally as gobi. At the resolution of an astronaut photograph, these are somewhat indistinguishable from the vegetated areas arresting some of the dunes. But gobi tend to be located on the flat regions between the dunes.