This false-color image from the Sentinel-2A satellite shows agricultural structures near Tubarjal, Saudi Arabia. Circles come from a central-pivot irrigation system, where the long water pipe rotates around a well at the center. (Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA)

The latest endeavor from the European Space Agency, the , has a long life ahead, and it’s starting off with a bang, sending back detailed pictures of everything from a glacier in Greenland to a desert in Libya to the false-color crop circle (first image above) of agriculture in Saudi Arabia.

From high above, the circles look like buttons, like some sort of strange pattern. They’re really an irrigation system to compensate for the country’s arid, dry landscape; in the summer temperatures can soar to anywhere from 108 to 122 degrees, depending on the region. The system creates circles by way of water pipes rotating around a central well. They’re used for growing crops, mainly wheat.

“Even though environmental conditions are not ideal, Saudi Arabia has always attached great importance to the and has given it priority in its various development plans,” the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations wrote in a 2008 report. By the end of 2016, however, the Middle Eastern country of more than 27 million will , a decree by the government there to save what few water resources are left, according to the USDA Global Agricultural Information Network.

, which launched June 23, 2015, provides never-before-seen images of this type. The point of the satellite, part of ESA’s Copernicus program, is to monitor our landscapes so we can make a “step change in the way we manage our environment, understand and tackle the effects of climate change and safeguard everyday lives.” Part of the mission is to manage food security and resources. Click on the following links for more about how the satellite will help with , and .

Sentinel-2B will join its sibling in space sometime in 2016. For the time being, Sentinel-2A will continue to send back amazing images, like those in the slideshow above.

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