February 16, 2021 - Hainan, China

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   Hainan, China
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   On February 12, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
   (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of
   Hainan, China.

   Sometimes promoted by travel companies as China’s largest tropical
   island, Hainan sits in the South China Sea and is separated from
   Guangdong Province on the mainland by the Qiongzhou Strait. The
   island’s largest city and capital, Haikou, can be found on the northern
   coast while the popular beaches of Sanya sit on the southern coast.

   Hainan’s warm, humid climate promotes the growth of tropical crops such
   as rice, sweet potato, sugar cane, peanuts, and tea. Other important
   crops include rubber, coconut, pepper, coffee, cocoa, cashew,
   pineapples, and bananas. Given the sea-side location, the economy
   benefits from a rich fishery.

   Tropical rainforest still exists in parts of Hainan. Fortunately, the
   government has begun to preserve parts of it in national forests as
   well as encourage conservation of the natural assets on the island. The
   Bawangling National Nature Reserve on the western side of the island is
   home to the Hainan black-crested gibbon, which has the distinction of
   the title of the world’s most critically endangered primate. This
   species was once found across about half of China but had disappeared
   from the mainland by the late 1950s. At that time, about two thousand
   remained on Hainan. Today the total number of is estimated to be about
   thirty animals.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 2/12/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (53.1 KB),  500m (53.1 KB),  250m (534.1 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=2021-02-16
 
