The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over south-central Morocco, close to the town of Ouarzazate.
Zoom in or click on on the circles to discover this picture at its full 10 m decision.
This picture captures the area of the Anti-Atlas Mountains, partially seen to the south, which run parallel to and south of the central vary of North Africa’s Excessive Atlas mountains. Right here the panorama is usually dry and barren, as these mountains lie inside the Saharan local weather zone.
This false-colour picture has been processed utilizing Sentinel-2’s near-infrared channel. This band mixture is mostly used to evaluate vegetation density and well being, as crops mirror near-infrared and inexperienced gentle whereas absorbing purple. Since crops mirror extra near-infrared than inexperienced, densely vegetated land seems shiny purple.
Pink vegetated areas are clearly seen alongside the banks of the rivers that circulation by means of the encompassing semi-arid terrain. Rivers within the area are principally seasonal, usually solely carrying vital quantities of water in the course of the winter and spring. Captured in January 2026, in the course of the moist season, this picture even clearly reveals smaller tributaries, together with vegetation and agricultural plots.
North of the bigger purple space, lies the city cloth of Ouarzazate, the provincial capital, located within the valley of the Ouarzazate River, also referred to as Assif n’Tidili. Owing to its desert landscapes and historic structure, the Berber-speaking metropolis is a well-liked filming location. Productions resembling Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Final Temptation of Christ (1988), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000) and a part of the TV sequence Sport of Thrones had been shot right here.
Only a few kilometres east of the town lies El Mansour Eddahbi Reservoir, seen in black. The lake has a median depth of 30 m and is split into two sections: a smaller western half fed by the Ouarzazate River and several other smaller streams, and a a lot bigger jap part fed by the Draa – Morocco’s longest river – seen within the decrease proper flowing southeast from the reservoir.
The massive function about 10 km north of the town is the Ouarzazate solar energy station, additionally referred to as Noor (Arabic for gentle) Energy Station. Accomplished in 4 phases and masking over 3000 hectares, it’s the world’s largest concentrated solar energy facility. Such crops use mirrors to focus daylight onto receivers, producing warmth that may be saved and transformed into electrical energy even when the solar isn’t shining.
