September 29, 2019 - New Mexico

On September 26, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of New Mexico. The San Andreas Mountains rise to the west and the Sacramento Mountains in the east. The mighty Rio Grande River runs through the center of the image, creating a ribbon of dark green in the tans of the arid and semi-arid landscape.

The most striking feature of this image, a patch of bright white sand dunes sit at the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. These gypsum dunes sprawl over roughly 275 square miles (715 sq. km) of very dry ground. About 40 percent of the area falls within the White Sands National Monument, managed by the U.S. National Park Service.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 9/26/2019
Resolutions: 1km (267 KB), 500m (766.4 KB), 250m (1.4 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC