Seen in the image to the right, captured by that satellite, is a small portion of the expanse of sand dunes that stretches along the entire length of Namibia’s hyper-arid coast.
Thought to be the world’s oldest desert, the towering sand dunes near the Namib-Naukluft Game Park are the largest in the world.
Some dunes can reach almost 1,000 feet (300 metres) above the desert floor.
The close-up view highlights a portion of the image where sand dunes intersect a stream flowing out of a far less arid mountain range to the east.
Also visible in the image are blooms of phytoplankton in the ocean along a portion of the coast.
Such blooms are common off southwestern Africa, where cold and nutrient-rich ocean currents sweep northward from Antarctica and interact with the coastal shelf.
The chlorophyll in these ocean plants gives them their greenish hues, which, combined with the deep blue of the water, creates exotic swirls of color clearly visible from space.