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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