September 19, 2022 - South Australia

South Australia
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Outside of Antarctica, Australia is the driest continent on Earth—and
South Australia is Australia’s driest state. Roughly twenty percent of
the state receives more than 10 inches (250 mm) in a year and less than
ten percent receives more than 16 inches (400 mm). The aridity is so
extreme, it becomes obvious even in satellite images, with the dry,
dusty, red-soiled interior giving way to a fringe of green vegetation
near the coast, where rain is relatively abundant.

On September 15, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a
true-color image of a sunny day in South Australia.

The dominant colors in this image are tans and ochre tones, testimony
to a dry region with sparse vegetation. Bright, almost startling, white
and gray swaths and patches mark ephemeral lakes, which remain dry and
encrusted with salt and other minerals most of the time, but can fill
with water when the rare abundant rain falls. The large salt-encrusted
lakes, from west to east, are Lake Gairdner, Island Lagoon, and Lake
Torrens, and Lake Frome.

Lying between Lake Torrens and Lake Frome, the large patch of green,
brown, and black marks the Flinders Ranges, the largest mountain system
in Australia. It’s a classic example of a “folded mountain range”—a
type of mountain formed when tectonic plates collide, folding and
pushing layers of land into mountain ranges. Although the Flinders
Ranges is semi-arid at best, vegetation such as cypress pine and black
oak have adapted to the environment and grow abundantly in some parts
of the mountains.

The truly lush vegetation sits in the south, near the coastline, where
annual rainfall is relatively abundant. Most of the population of South
Australia live in the green belt of the state near the blue waters of
the Great Australian Bight. This area is also the heartland of South
Australian agriculture, where most of the crops such as wheat and
barley are grown and livestock such as swine and poultry are
concentrated. Some crops are grown inland, but usually depend on
irrigation. Some livestock, such as cattle, also are raised in the
interior.

The wedge of blue at the far south of this image is Spencer Gulf, an
indentation off the Great Australian Bight. One of its claims to fame
is that each winter it attracts the worlds largest congregation of
Australian giant cuttlefish. These curious creatures, which can grow
over 3 feet (1 meter) long, cluster in Spencer Gulf each winter to
spawn.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 9/15/2022
Resolutions: 1km (213.8 KB), 500m (525.7 KB), 250m (297.3
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=2022-09-19

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