This paper proposes a method for modeling and rendering realistic desert scenes. A desert terrain includes sand dunes and wind ripples. We use two types of scale models to form them. We render the dunes with the wind-ripples by bump-mapping using LODs (Levels of Detail).

Astronaut observations and photographs of color variations in the Western Desert of Egypt are related to both iron oxide coalings on individual grains and the presence of locally derived material in the sand deposits. The results of four field trips, to Baharîya Oasis, Sîwa Oasis, Khârga and Dakhla Oases, and the Great Sand Sea, enable more detailed interpretations of colors photographed during...

The Taklimakan Desert is located in the foreland basin of the Tibetan Plateau. We report here the results of stratigraphic investigations of a 1626-meter-thick sequence with interbedded wind-blown silt from the southern marginal Taklimakan Desert. Because the studied section is located downwind of the desert, the eolian silt accumulation is closely linked to desert formation. Our new evidence i...

The sandfish (Scincus scincus) is a lizard having the remarkable ability to move through desert sand for significant distances. It is well adapted to living in loose sand by virtue of a combination of morphological and behavioural specializations. We investigated the bodyform of the sandfish using 3D-laserscanning and explored its locomotion in loose desert sand using fast nuclear magnetic reso...

Recently, in several areas of the Middle East, a sharp increase of cutaneous leishmaniasis was observed in suburbs of larger towns including Jerusalem. In some of these areas, poor housing conditions and unsuitable waste management was suspected to provide ideal conditions for sand fly breeding, but hard data on diurnal resting sites and breeding habitats of most sand fly species are scant. In ...

Land use and land cover change have been of great concern in global change research in recent years. Base on comparison with the remote sensing data in1982 and 2000 and field investigation, the results of land cover and land use change were obtained by the method of landscape analysis. Ten types of land use were identified: riparian woods, riparian shrubbery, desert shrubbery, desert grassland,...

physical characteristics of different features in desert is a reflection of severe thermal and climatic conditions. in this paper, diurnal surface temperature patterns of important surface features in lut desert were studied and the relationship among different surfaces analyzed. diurnal trend in surface temperature of surface types, marl, dark sand, light sand, salt-affected soil, soul at 10 c...