Google Earth - What's that?

[Parmigiano]

Found this 'circles' in Saudi Arabia, if you zoom out you'll see hundreds of them.

Can anybody figure out what they could be? maybe 'censored' military installations, but why that many?


25°18'57.47"N 44°29'38.78"E

 

[mlmcdonald]

They are irrigated fields using circular sprinklers. If you look closely at the brown circles, i.e., the ones which are lying fallow, you will see the sprinkler pipe extending from its center attachment point. When the water is turned on, it drives the contraption slowly around and around, thus keeping the entire field watered. I've seen the same kind of arrangement in lots of places in this country, but most pertinently in similar desert terrain in Arizona.

Michael

 

[Parmigiano]

Thank you Michael

 

[mlmcdonald]

You're welcome. I have to admit that they are a little odd looking from above, and the first time I ever saw one in person it seemed really strange to me since I had never thought of a field as any other shape but a rectangle. And in these times of hot and heavy military activity of God only knows what kind in the Middle East, well, pretty much anything there that looks at all unusual becomes suspicious.

Michael