May 1, 2021 - Late Wet Season in Northeastern South Africa

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   South Africa, Mozambique, Limpopo River, Kruger National Park
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   On April 26, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
   (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a stunning true-color
   image of the greens and golds that color northeastern South Africa. The
   brilliance of the green washed across the region marks the rich
   vegetative growth that has been spurred by the long wet season, which
   runs from October to April. The wet season brings maximum greenness to
   the countryside, high humidity, and a multitude of migrating birds to
   northeastern South Africa.

   The image is centered on Limpopo Province, where the Limpopo River
   begins its 1,087-mile (1,750 km) journey through South Africa and
   Mozambique to reach the Indian Ocean. The Limpopo River is the
   second-largest river in Africa to drain into the Indian Ocean. In this
   region, the river forms a boundary between South Africa and Botswana
   (northeast) and Zimbabwe (north) before coursing into Mozambique.

   Not far from the Limpopo River, a swath of light green outlines much of
   Kruger National Park, probably the most famous game reserve in South
   Africa. While wild game—and tourism—thrive in Kruger today, human use
   of the land here is ancient. More than 250 archaeological sites show
   signs of human occupation of parts of the land contained by the park
   back about 1 million years ago. The sudden rise of a dark area to the
   east marks the edge of Kruger National Park and the boundary with
   Mozambique.

   Moving to the west of Kruger National Park, a myriad of tan smudges
   mark several small towns situation on grassland. To their west the
   lands rise to a high plateau, where the large city of Polokwane, the
   capital of Limpopo Province is located. The city can be seen as a gray
   smudge against a tan landscape.

   A gray-and-white structure near the center of the image is the Palabora
   mine. It is South Africa’s largest open-pit mine, measuring about 1.25
   miles (2 km) wide. Copper mining began at Palabora in 1965, and by 1967
   the open-pit mine was fully operational. The hole reached 800 meters
   down into the Earth before the depletion of resources made it
   uneconomical to continue mining in the pit. Operations moved
   underground (below the pit) and mostly out of sight in the early 2000s.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 4/26/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (275.9 KB),  500m (786.2 KB),  250m (1.8 MB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-05-01
 
