August 20, 2019 - Namib Desert

This stunning true-color image featuring the soft orange sands of the Namib Desert was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 16, 2019.

Although beautiful from space, the Namib Desert contains some of the most arid regions in the world. In some areas, so little precipitation occurs that moisture is almost exclusively gleaned from fog that frequently forms offshore. The thick fog, formed by the cold Benguela Current that snakes up from the south along southern Africa’s Atlantic Coast, forms the meager life-blood of the desert, allowing a few highly-adapted animal and plant species to survive.

The Namib is said to be the world’s oldest desert, estimated to have existed for 55 million years. Cut with long-dry riverbeds, the desert has essentially no surface water. The soft orange sands form tall, shifting sand dunes, which are driven by strong onshore winds. These are some of the highest and dunes on Earth, rising as high as 1,000 to 1,167 feet (304 to 256 meters) in some areas. In the interior of Namibia, the soft orange sands of the coastal desert rise to a rugged interior plateau, with outcroppings of dark, colorful rocks and pale green vegetation.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 8/16/2019
Resolutions: 1km (218.7 KB), 500m (545.1 KB), 250m (359.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC