Photo Details

False-color satellite image shows a portion of the Kimberley Plateau, situated north of the Great Sandy Desert in a remote stretch of the province of Western Australia. In this scene, the Durack, Chamberlain, and Ord Rivers wind their way northward to the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. The long elongated water bodies in the north are backwaters from the Timor Sea. The reddish brown patches are fire scars in the otherwise densely-vegetated (green) area. During the summer months, lightning strikes can quickly spark dozens of wildfires across Australia's Western and Northern Territories, giving the landscape its mottled appearance. Image courtesy of NASA.