The image is dating back to 2005 and was captured by ASTER sensor of Terra satellite. The so called "Sand Sea" in the image is taken in Rub' al Khali desert in Oman, on Arabian Peninsula. Due to high reflection from the parts between the dunes, the landscape seems so "wavy", while the highly reflected areas are just the flat plains that are left here after the shallow lakes present in the area many thousands of years ago dried up. The desert is mostly dry, having just 3.5 cm of precipitation yearly, however, this year in spring-summer season it rained heavily (tropical cyclone Mekunu) and the precipitation level raised up to 28 cm for 2018. The importance of the periodic satellite imagery of a region is that they allow us to evaluate the change in natural landscapes, and estimate its effect on related fields (e.g.rise in vegetation, that could serve as a food source for local camels).
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