Giant Mysterious Circles In Saudi Desert Baffle Internet – What's Going On Beneath The Sand?
The images came from space. The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite caught them while scanning the desolate terrain earlier this year. To the untrained eye, the pictures are puzzling. Dozens of glowing and geometric rings scattered across the otherwise barren expanse. The kind of images that light up online speculation and ignite wild theories.
But behind the visual mystery lies an engineered ambition. These circles are a glimpse into Saudi Arabia's agricultural experiment, one where desert becomes farmland.
The satellite captured them from nearly 700 kilometres above the earth. Taken in October 2024, January 2025 and again in May, the photos document subtle changes over time. Each of these circular fields spans nearly a kilometre in diameter. At the center of each circle lies a deep well, tapping into aquifers far below. Long arms, fitted with rotating sprinklers, spiral around the central point, showering the soil evenly.
This is precision farming, adapted to one of the world's most extreme climates. In a country where rain is rare and summer temperatures often soar beyond 50 degree Celsius, these green rings offer a rare sight. Wheat, vegetables and alfalfa pushing through dry ground.
The location is near the city of Tabarjal, inside the Wadi as-Sirhan basin. It is a place once defined only by its dust and rock. Now, it is part of an ambitious transformation. From above, it looks like a surreal and psychedelic art installation. On the ground, it is the outcome of carefully managed irrigation systems, relentless sunlight and underground water reserves being pumped upward to sustain life.
But scientists are raising a warning. The underground aquifers feeding these fields are not being replenished. With every rotation of the sprinklers, the water table drops a little lower. Over time, without new sources of water or more sustainable techniques, these green miracles could fade.
In the satellite images, the contrast is clear. The glowing circles stand surrounded by dark patches – bare earth, dry sand and land without vegetation. Among them, Tabarjal shines as a modest yet vital hub. It keeps the region alive, supplying food, supporting rural communities and now, drawing the world's gaze.
From orbit to oasis, this patch of Saudi Arabia is telling a story of human determination, natural limits and a desert slowly reimagined.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
2 days ago
- The Hindu
Study finds climate change could worsen risk of diarrhoea among children in south, southeast Asia
Climate change could worsen the risk of diarrhoea -- a leading cause of death among children aged under five -- across south and southeast Asia, including India, endangering the health of millions of children, according to a study. Researchers from Australia, including those from Flinders University, analysed data of more than three million children, taken from national surveys of eight Asian countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Prevalence of diarrhoea was found to be about 8 per cent among India's under-fives. The disease is marked by passing loose, watery stools occurring more often than normal. Dehydration, malnutrition and an impaired immunity are among its risk factors. Study findings The findings, published in the journal Environmental Research, also highlight temperature extremes and declining rainfall (in a year's wettest month) as the two main climate-associated factors driving a higher risk of diarrhoea among children. A wider range of yearly temperatures -- 30 to 40 degrees Celsius -- was related with a 39 per cent increase in chances of diarrhoea among children, while less-than-usual rainfall in the wettest month (under 600 millimetres) increased the risk by about 30 per cent. Further, children of mothers with less than eight years of schooling were found to face an 18 per cent higher risk of diarrhoea, lead researcher Syeda Hira Fatima from Flinders University said. "This makes investing in maternal education one of the most powerful and scalable climate-adaptation strategies -- not only to improve child health, but also to address broader challenges like overcrowding and poor hygiene," Fatima said. "Education empowers mothers to act early when their children fall ill, which can save lives," the lead researcher said and added that its role in climate-health policies is central, especially in the world's densely populated, high-risk regions. Citing previous research, co-author Corey Bradshaw, professor of global ecology at Flinders University, said 88 per cent of deaths due to diarrhoea are linked to unhygienic conditions, including unsafe drinking water. "Improved access to drinking water can reduce the risk of diarrhoea by 52 per cent, while better sanitation facilities can lower the risk by 24 per cent," Bradshaw said. The author added that poverty is known to increase diarrhoea risk by limiting access to nutrition, clean water and healthcare, while also fostering environments where diarrhoeal pathogens thrive. "With our recent research also showing that droughts in East Asia will intensify based on 1,50,000 years of monsoon records, this new study now warns that the intensified impacts of climate change will lead to increased child diarrhoea and all the associated health impacts in Asia," Bradshaw said. The authors wrote, "Higher annual temperature range (30-40 degrees Celsius) was associated with a (nearly) 39 per cent increase in diarrhoea probability, while lower precipitation in the wettest month (under 600 millimetres) increased risk by (nearly) 29 per cent, highlighting the role of drier conditions." "We found that maternal education (under) eight years increased diarrhoea probability by (nearly) 18 per cent, and household sizes exceeding six members increased it by (nearly) nine per cent," they wrote.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Study finds impact of heat exposure on students' long-term learning, ability to handle complex tasks
New Delhi, A study has described how prolonged exposure to heat especially under increased global warming can impact cognition of school children, affecting long-term learning and the ability to handle complex tasks. Study finds impact of heat exposure on students' long-term learning, ability to handle complex tasks Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and University of New South Wales in Australia reviewed data from seven previously published studies involving nearly 14.5 million students from 61 countries, including India. Findings published in the journal PLOS Climate point to impacted learning capacity of students under a long-term exposure to heat, with performance in complex tasks, such as mathematical, hit harder than that in simpler ones, including reading. As the planet continues to get warmer, deficits in learning abilities among the youth can accumulate, potentially reducing the "capacity of young people to undertake intensive cognitive activities", the authors said. Equity and quality of life of the vulnerable, low-income population which is unable to protect itself from climate change will be affected, the team said. They added that societal disparities will be widened and economic progress hampered in the less developed nations which are more exposed to heat. Two of the seven studies that the researchers reviewed pertaining to primary school students in India found that one additional day in a previous year with an average daily temperature higher than 29 degrees Celsius impacted reading and mathematical abilities, compared to a day with a temperature between 15-17 degrees Celsius. Ten such days in a previous year were "found to reduce reading scores by 0.02 and mathematics scores by 0.03". Data for mathematics and reading test scores were taken from the Annual Status of Education Report , a nationwide survey of rural households to assess children's schooling and learning. Story reading and division skills in mathematics reduced by one percentage point, the authors said. The analysis also used data from the Young Lives Survey , a UK-funded long-term study of poverty and inequality among 12,000 children from Ethiopia, India , Peru and Vietnam. "These results were statistically significant, with the impact of hot days being significant only for the harder questions in both reading and mathematics tests," the researchers wrote. They also said, "The social cost of global overheating on human capital associated to the potential reduced capacity of young people to undertake intensive cognitive activities, will unfortunately affect equity and quality of life of vulnerable and low-income population unable to be protected from the climatic phenomena." "It will accelerate societal discrepancies and will impede economic progress in less developed countries suffering from excessive heat exposure," the team wrote. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
NDTV
2 days ago
- NDTV
'Silent Killer': The Science Of Tracing Climate Deaths In Heatwaves
A heatwave scorching Europe had barely subsided in early July when scientists published estimates that 2,300 people may have died across a dozen major cities during the extreme, climate-fuelled episode. The figure was supposed to "grab some attention" and sound a timely warning in the hope of avoiding more needless deaths, said Friederike Otto, one of the scientists involved in the research. "We are still relatively early in the summer, so this will not have been the last heatwave. There is a lot that people and communities can do to save lives," Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, told AFP. Heat can claim tens of thousands of lives during European summers but it usually takes months, even years, to count the cost of this "silent killer". Otto and colleagues published their partial estimate just a week after temperatures peaked in western Europe. While the underlying methods were not new, the scientists said it was the first study to link heatwave deaths to climate change so soon after the event in question. Early mortality estimates could be misunderstood as official statistics but "from a public health perspective the benefits of providing timely evidence outweigh these risks," Raquel Nunes from the University of Warwick told AFP. "This approach could have transformative potential for both public understanding and policy prioritisation" of heatwaves, said Nunes, an expert on global warming and health who was not involved in the study. Big deal Science can show, with increasing speed and confidence, that human-caused climate change is making heatwaves hotter and more frequent. Unlike floods and fires, heat kills quietly, with prolonged exposure causing heat stroke, organ failure, and death. The sick and elderly are particularly vulnerable, but so are younger people exercising or toiling outdoors. But every summer, heat kills and Otto -- a pioneer in the field of attribution science -- started wondering if the message was getting through. "We have done attribution studies of extreme weather events and attribution studies of heatwaves for a decade... but as a society we are not prepared for these heatwaves," she said. "People think it's 30 (degrees Celsius) instead of 27, what's the big deal? And we know it's a big deal." When the mercury started climbing in Europe earlier this summer, scientists tweaked their approach. Joining forces, Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine chose to spotlight the lethality -- not just the intensity -- of the heat between June 23 and July 2. Combining historic weather and published mortality data, they assessed that climate change made the heatwave between 1C and 4C hotter across 12 cities, depending on location, and that 2,300 people had likely perished. But in a notable first, they estimated that 65 percent of these deaths -- around 1,500 people across cities including London, Paris, and Athens -- would not have occurred in a world without global warming. "That's a much stronger message," said Otto. "It brings it much closer to home what climate change actually means and makes it much more real and human than when you say this heatwave would have been two degrees colder." Underestimated threat The study was just a snapshot of the wider heatwave that hit during western Europe's hottest June on record and sent temperatures soaring to 46C in Spain and Portugal. The true count was likely much higher, the authors said, noting that heat deaths are widely undercounted. Since then Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria have suffered fresh heatwaves and deadly wildfires. Though breaking new ground, the study has not been subject to peer review, a rigorous assessment process that can take more than a year. Otto said waiting until after summer to publish -- when "no one's talking about heatwaves, no one is thinking about keeping people safe" -- would defeat the purpose. "I think it's especially important, in this context, to get the message out there very quickly." The study had limitations but relied on robust and well-established scientific methodology, several independent experts told AFP. Tailoring this approach to local conditions could help cities better prepare when heatwaves loom, Abhiyant Tiwari, a health and climate expert who worked on India's first-ever heat action plan, told AFP. "I definitely see more such studies coming out in the future," said Tiwari from NRDC India. Otto said India, which experiences tremendously hot summers, was a "prime candidate" and with a template in place it was likely more studies would soon follow.
