• MODIS Pic of the Day 30 July 2022

    From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Sat Jul 30 12:00:56 2022
    July 30, 2022 - South Africa

    South Africa
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    On July 28, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
    (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of a
    sunny mid-winter day on the southern tip of South Africa. Clear skies,
    punctuated only by a few clusters of cloud over high mountain peaks,
    allowed a detailed view of the diverse topography of the Western Cape
    region, all set against the dark waters of the South Pacific Ocean
    (west) and Indian Ocean (east).

    The finger-like projection off the southwestern coast is the Cape
    Peninsula, a mostly mountainous outcrop of sandstone. The peninsula
    curves around False Bay, home to a wide variety of marine life
    including four species of whale and five species of dolphin.
    Gray-tinted pixels along part of the northern shore mark the city of
    Cape Town, the second-largest city in South Africa. Cape Town spreads
    across the Cape Peninsula, also stretching along Table Bay in the
    north. The Cape of Good Hope sits at the tip of the Cape Peninsula, a
    historical landmark for ships traveling off the western coast of Africa
    as it is the location where those ships finally turned eastward.

    Just inland from the coastline, swaths of green mark the Southern and
    Southwestern Coastal Belts, ecoregions that contain a wide variety of
    vegetation. This is where the remarkable and unique Cape Floristic
    Region is found. The Cape Floristic Region has the distinction of being
    among the most diverse on Earth, with more than 9,000 species of
    vascular plants. About 69 percent of these are endemic, meaning they
    are found nowhere else. A large number of plants found in the fynbos
    and renosterveld ecoregions found in the Cape Floristic Region are very
    rare and in danger of becoming extinct.

    Moving inland, the landscape shoots upward and becomes arid. From the
    coast, the land first rises into the individual mountain ranges of the
    Cape Fold Belt, which are interrupted by wide valleys that run from
    east to west. Moving inland, the Great Escarpment rises steeply
    upwards. Black shadows at the edge of the Great Escarpment can be seen
    in this image, giving a sense of the dramatic and sudden elevation
    change. In the northern section of the Western Cape Province is the
    area known as the Great Karoo, a semi-desert plateau that provides home
    for many species, including springbok, gemsbok, Cape mountain zebra,
    bat-eared fox, and ostrich.

    Image Facts
    Satellite: Aqua
    Date Acquired: 7/28/2022
    Resolutions: 1km (192 KB), 500m (521.8 KB), 250m (360.5 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=2022-07-30

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