Guinea-Bissau and the Bissagos Islands

The coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa is pictured in this image from the Landsat-8 satellite. Mangrove swamps are abundant along this coastline, acting as important feeding grounds for fish, birds and animals.

Flowing from the east, the Geba River empties into the Atlantic Ocean, with the country’s capital city of Bissau located on the river estuary. The city appears as a light brown area in the upper-central portion of the image.

Off the coast in the lower-left section of the image are the Bissagos (or Bijagós) islands – an archipelago of over 80 islands and islets. In 1996 the archipelago was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

A diversity of mammals, reptiles, birds and fish can be found on the islands, including protected or rare species such as the Nile crocodile, hippopotamus, African manatee and the common bottlenose dolphin.

The archipelago has also been recognized as an important site for green sea turtles to lay their eggs.

In the lower left corner, the island of Orango looks like a tree, with the waterways like branches and land appears as foliage. This island is the center of a national park, and is known for its matrimonial tradition where marriage is formally proposed by the women – who are also responsible for building the homes.

This image was acquired by Landsat-8 satellite’s Operational Land Imager on 3 May 2013 and it is featured in the Earth from Space video program.

Image credit: USGS/ESA

Botswana's Okavango Delta

This image is a compilation of three images from Envisat’s radar and shows where southwestern Africa’s Okavango River empties into the inland Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. The Okavango River originates in Angola, forms part of the Angola Namibia border and then ends in northern Botswana. Here, it has formed a depression in the semi-arid Kalahari basin. Appearing purple at the center of the image is Chief’s Island. In the lower-right portion of the image we can see a large cluster of radar reflections from the town of Maun. At the top of the image, a triangle with similar coloring to the delta can be seen. This is a swamp area and national park located mostly in Namibia.

This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.

Image credit: ESA

Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras

The eastern end of the Gulf of Fonseca, in Honduras, was originally the site of extensive wetlands ecosystem, dominated by six species of mangroves. In 1986 (right image), the Landsat Thematic Mapper shows an environment minimally impacted by human activities. By 2009, when the ASTER image was acquired (left), hundreds of square kilometers of coastal swamps had been converted to shrimp ponds, appearing as blue rectangles near the water line. The images cover an area of 30 x 36 km, and are located at 13 degrees north latitude, 87.2 degrees west longitude.

Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team