Abstract: he trends, periods and chaotic characteristics of sandstorm and the impacts of climatic factors on sandstorm variation were analyzed based on the meteorological data observed by 3 weather stations in the Manas River Bain oasis during the period of 1959-2007 and using the methods of wavelet analysis, chaotic theory, R/S analysis and nonparametric test. The results show that the sandstorm frequency was in a decrease trend, and sandstorm occurred mainly in spring and summer; there were the 4year and 17year periodic changes of sandstorm frequency in the Manas River Basin oasis; based on the R/S analysis, it is believable to predict that the decrease trend of sandstorm frequency will still maintained in next 15 years; there were the significant correlations between sandstorm and evaporation and gale, but the correlations between sandstorm and other climatic factors were not significant; the sandstorm is closely and significantly correlated with the NAO in summer.

Key words: sandstorm, climatic factor, wavelet analysis, correlation, Manas River Basin, Xinjiang