NASA MODIS Image of the Day: April 8, 2012 – Northern Australia
A sunny fall morning greeted the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite as it passed over northern Australia on April 3, 2012, allowing the instrument to capture this true-color image. This swath centers on Australia’s Northern Territory, but a portion of the state of Western Australia also has been captured. A black borderline has been overlain on the image; Western Australia is to the west of the line and the Northern Territory is to the east. Northern Australia experiences two major seasons, and April is a transition time between the two. The first is the wet season, which typically begins in November, and ends in March or April, and the dry season which follows, ending about October. Australians officially recognize four calendar seasons as well, with spring and summer typically wet, and fall and winter dry. In addition, many indigenous Australians recognize their own calendars, which often break the year into six or eight seasons. The Jawoyn of the Northern Territory, for example, call the period from March to mid-April “Bungarung”, or “the end of the rains”. Seasonal variation is less noticeable in the southern section of the Northern Territory, where the climate is semi-arid. This is the desert center of Australia, and receives less than 250 mm (9.8 in) of rain per year. October to March is the hottest months in this section of the country, and little rain falls during this time. The difference in climate results in starkly different landscapes. In the semi-arid south, the land is painted in various shades of tan, with very little green. In the northeastern edge, the white of salt pans – beds of minerals that result from the evaporation of lakes – are seen where the tans give way to green. Vegetation thrives further north, and the landscape is colored primarily in greens.
