Dhofar Region, Oman. Much of Oman is desert, but the Arabian Sea coast in the Dhofar region represents a startling difference in climate. This coastal region catches the monsoon rains, or khareef, during the summer months. Drenching rains fall primarily on the mountainous ridge that separates the lush, fertile areas along the coast from the arid interior, recharging streams, waterfalls and springs that provide plentiful water supplies in the fertile lowlands for the remainder of the year. Image taken by Landsat 5 on April 2, 2005. (Photo by USGS/NASA)

Snow blows off the Svalbard Global Seed Vault before being inaugurated at sunrise, Tuesday, February 26, 2008. (Photo by John McConnico/AP Photo)

Participants at the Dubai Run at Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on November 26, 2021. (Photo by Ruel Pableo for The National)

Ukrainian platoon commander Mariia talks on the phone in a position in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, July 2, 2022. Ukrainian soldiers returning from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region describe life during what has turned into a grueling war of attrition as apocalyptic. Mariia, 41, said that front-line conditions may vary depending on where a unit is positioned and how well supplied they are. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier struggles with his glasses and face mask as he attends a press conference after visiting the Salzburg Festival in Salzburg, Austria, Saturday, August 22, 2020. (Photo by Kerstin Joensson/AP Photo)

Australian model Kate Fischer (Tziporah Malkah) poses with a Cointreau Ball to celebrate France’s founding anniversary in Sydney, Australia on July 14, 1996. (Photo by Getty Images)

A person wearing a face mask holds a cat on Swanston Street after cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, January 29, 2020. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Guests arrive for the Arlo Guthrie concert at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the original site of the Woodstock Festival, on the 50th anniversary in Bethel, New York, U.S. August 15, 2019. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)