NASA MODIS Image of the Day: October 19, 2008 – Namibia
This image, captured by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite on September 27, 2008, shows the country of Namibia.
Namibia, located in southern Africa, is on the Atlantic coast, and bordered by Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south.
Namibia has several notable deserts, arguably the most famous is the Namib Desert, which stretches over about 1000 miles of coastline and is 100 miles at its widest point. There are several national parks along the Namib Desert; the largest of them, called Namib-Naukluft Park, is in the south and contains the Sossusvlei Sand Dunes, the largest sand dunes in the world. Dune 7, at approximately 383 meters is actually the highest sand dune in the world. Arabian sand dunes measure more than 100 meters lower than this. In the top center of the full image, is Etosha National Park – the oval lake is actually the Etosha salt pan, which in the summer can fill with water. In this image, it does actually contain water (green) as well as salt (white). When there is water, pelicans and flamingos can be attracted to it! In the dry seaason, winds can blow the saline dust from the salt pan across the country out over the southern Atlantic. The land downwind of the salt pan is also salt enriched, which can be good for some of the wildlife, but can cause difficulties for agriculture.
