Northern African mineral dust provides the Amazon Basin with essential nutrients, although the process is still poorly understood. In our study, we utilise high-resolution satellite data to analyse northern African dust sources of the 2015–2017 winter dust seasons. We find that the majority of dust is emitted from palaeolake and palaeoriver systems. Specifically, palaeorivers have been mostly overlooked to date. Furthermore, we find that dune fields do not produce much dust.