November 16, 2020 - The Orange River

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   The Orange River
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   The Orange River twists through more than 1,367 miles (2,200 km) of
   South Africa’s stunning landscape, carrying life-giving water to the
   veld and the southern limits of the Kalahari and Namib Deserts. Rising
   from the Drakensberg Mountains in Lesotho, the Orange flows westward to
   spill into the Atlantic Ocean. The waters are vital to support
   agriculture, industry, recreation, tourism, energy production, and
   drinking water across South Africa.

   On November 13, 2020, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
   (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of
   the Orange River as it transverses the stunning ochres, reds, and tans
   of Northern Cape Province in South Africa. The blue waters are outlined
   in green, marking areas where the water feeds vegetative growth. Dark
   green areas that line the river east of the Korannaberg and Asbesberge
   Mountains marks irrigated agriculture, where crops such as table
   grapes, cotton, groundnuts, wheat, and maize are grown.

   Near the eastern edge of the image, the Vaal River flows southwestward
   to join the Orange River, which flows northwestward to meet it. It is
   in this general area, between the Orange and the Vaal, that the
   discovery of diamonds triggered the rapid growth of an industry that
   made South Africa famous—and a few people extremely rich. The first
   diamond was found along the banks of the Orange near Hopetown (east of
   this image) in 1866. In 1869, the 83.5 carat Star of South Africa was
   unearthed near the confluence of the Orange and Vaal. Not far to the
   north, a rich trove of diamonds on lands owned by the DeBeers family
   encouraged thousands to dug in an area that became known as the
   Kimberly Mine. Also called the “Big Hole” after deep excavation, the
   mine was closed in 1914.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 11/13/2020
   Resolutions:  1km (19.3 KB),  500m (69.4 KB),  250m (214.2 KB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2020-11-16
 
