December 8, 2022 - Cuba and the Gulf of Batabanó

Cuba and the Gulf of Batabano
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The glorious, jewel-toned waters of the Gulf of Batabanó highlight this
true-color image of western Cuba which was acquired by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra
satellite on December 6, 2022.

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, stretching about 750 miles
(1,207 km) in length and measuring about 60 miles (97 km) wide on
average. A curved shape with numerous peninsulas and inlets brings the
island a remarkable 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of coastline.

From space, the most outstanding feature associated with Cuba is the
Gulf of Batabanó, a shallow inlet of the Caribbean Sea. The Gulf has a
surface area of about 20,850 square kilometers (8,050 square miles),
which is a slightly larger surface area of the U.S. state of
Massachusetts, and an average depth of only 6 meters (19.6 feet). The
typically turquoise waters sit over a carbonate bank, and this white,
sandy bottom sediment can be easily stirred up by currents, tides, or
wind-driven wave action. Wherever carbonate sediment is stirred up, the
waters of the Gulf of Batabanó take on a milky tinge, as seen in this
image.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 12/6/2022
Resolutions: 1km (302.3 KB), 500m (800.2 KB), 250m (538.4
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=2022-12-08

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