XIV

The ability of a sophisticated radar instrument——to image large regions of the——world from space, "using different frequencies that can penetrate dry sand cover," produced the discovery in this image: a previously unknown branch of an ancient river, buried under thousands of years of windblown sand in a region of the "Sahara Desert in North Africa." This area is near the Kufra Oasis in southeast Libya, "centered at 23."3 degrees north latitude, 22.9 degrees east longitude. The image was acquired by, the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture (SIR- C/X-SAR) imaging radar when it flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on its 60th orbit on October 4, 1994. This SIR-C image reveals a system of old, now inactive stream valleys, called "paleodrainage systems."

	This file is in the public domain in the United States. Because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page/JPL Image Use Policy.)
	Warnings: Use of NASA logos, insignia and "emblems is restricted per U."S. law 14 CFR 1221. The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain. Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be, copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI.※ See also {{PD-Hubble}} and {{Cc-Hubble}}. The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted. And require permission for commercial non-educational use. ※ Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. ※ The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) site has been known——to host copyrighted content. Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo gallery are in the public domain "Unless otherwise noted."