The Kalahari from high above
"An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this panoramic view of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa," NASA said last week.“The dark colored lines of the forest in Botswana's Okavango Delta stand out clearly against the light brown landscape. The rivers are fed by the wetter regions of northern Angola and Zambia. The Okavango River loses most of its water in the inland delta. The overflow occasionally reaches the Makgadikgadi salt flats (bottom left of image). The Zambezi and Cuando rivers reach the Indian Ocean after falling over Victoria Falls,” NASA explains along with the image.
The image also shows a large area from Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border (bottom right) to the Atlantic Ocean (top left). The white salt of the Etosha Pan is 960 km from Victoria Falls to compare the scale.
"The plumes of smoke from numerous fires in southern Angola are a sign of the burning of savannah vegetation, which usually consists of grass and scattered trees. Fires are a normal phenomenon during the dry season (winter) when this picture was taken.”
“The cloud pattern over the Cuando River basin illustrates the commonly observed feature of a cloud-free line following the course of a river. This line reflects a zone of cooler air just above the river where cloud development is suppressed – at least on days with little wind.”