January 25, 2023 - Gorgeous Green along the Nile River
Nile
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Over the span of millennia, the Nile River has provided a critical
lifeline as it courses through some of the driest landscape on Earth.
Originating in the rivers that enter into Lake Victoria (located in
modern-day Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya), the Nile flows northward for
more than 4,100 miles (6,600 km) through eastern Africa to end at the
Mediterranean Sea. The northern Nile passes through the Saharan Desert
in Egypt and Sudan, providing life-sustaining water for drinking,
agriculture, and fishing, as well as a means of transportation for
travel and commerce.
The profound effect of the Nile River and its annual flooding cycles
can be traced back to the language of ancient Egyptians, who are said
to have called the sandy desert the “red land”, while the rich and
moist floodplains along the river were called “black land”. Today, the
annual flooding cycles of the Nile, which brought water and nutrients
to enable extensive farming on the floodplains, have nearly become a
thing of the past, due to a series of dams that restrain the flow of
the Nile River. However, the contrast between the land touched by the
Nile’s waters and the nearby desert is still immense.
On January 24, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image
showing the life-giving power of the waters of the Nile River. A bright
ribbon of green vegetation decorates the entire length of the curving
river, it’s floodplains and tributaries, and any location touched by a
hint of rainfall (south). Away from the Nile, a vast area of desert
sands and rock outcroppings are washed in tans and browns, with little
or no vegetation visible.
The curving lake visible in the image is the Merowe Reservoir, created
by the building of the Merowe Dam by the government of Sudan.
Construction of the hydro-electric dam was completed in 2008, with the
official inauguration held in March 2009, after the reservoir was
completely filled.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 1/24/2023
Resolutions: 1km (336.8 KB), 500m (822.2 KB), 250m (521.6
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=2023-01-25
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