This picture from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the coast of Gabon in placing colors.
Zoom in or click on on the circles to discover this picture at its full decision.
Gabon, in Equatorial Africa, shares borders with Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea, with its coast going through the Gulf of Guinea. Immense forests thrive within the nation’s humid tropical local weather, masking roughly 88% of Gabon. It’s residence to a few of Africa’s most numerous rainforest and a haven for wildlife, together with western lowland gorillas and the critically endangered forest elephants.
The nation’s scorching and humid local weather additionally implies that the area is commonly lined by clouds, making it tough to amass optical cloud-free views. That is the place Sentinel-2’s instrument, with its 13 spectral channels, is ready to assist.
This false-colour picture was generated utilizing chosen near-infrared and short-wave spectral bands to cut back haze and to reinforce the variations in vegetation, moisture patterns and land cowl with extra contrasting colors in comparison with customary optical imagery.
This mixture additionally reveals clouds in various colors from white to pink, relying on their altitude and on the quantity of water droplet or ice particles inside them. Water our bodies, similar to rivers and lakes, seem darkish, whereas densely forested areas come up in orange.
The picture clearly illustrates how the nation’s geography is dominated by forests and by the Ogooué (Ogowe) River, seen operating throughout the centre of the picture. It flows westwards via Gabon, gathering water from quite a few lakes alongside its course, earlier than emptying into the Gulf of Guinea, the place it varieties a big delta.
Apart from the water our bodies, the picture is predominantly orange, representing dense, undisturbed rainforest, with darker orange or brownish tones indicating extra humid, low‑mendacity vegetation usually alongside the streams and in swampy areas. Yellow and acid‑inexperienced patches all through the picture normally denote grasslands or uncovered naked soil.
City, built-up areas seem in shades of aquamarine. Close to the Ogooué River delta lies Port Gentil, Gabon’s second metropolis, situated near Cape Lopez, the nation’s most westerly level, which juts into the Atlantic Ocean. Gabon’s capital Libreville will be seen on the northern shore of the Gabon Estuary, the massive inlet seen within the higher a part of the picture.
