Algerian sands

This image shows the sandy and rocky terrain of the Sahara desert in western Algeria. With the Mediterranean Sea almost 500 km away, the closest town to the area pictured here is Taghit in the Algerian province of Béchar.

The commercial Ikonos-2 satellite acquired this image on 23 April 2008 at a spatial resolution of 4 m. ESA supports Ikonos-2 as a Third Party Mission, which means that the Agency uses its multi-mission European ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite to its wide scientific user community.