Australia's Northern Territory

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Wednesday, 29 August 2007, 06:21 CDT Download full size image

The northernmost portion of Australia's Northern Territory, known as "The Top End" is featured in this image, captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite, on August 26, 2007. Within it are major cities, like Darwin, and a 20,000 square km National Park called Kakadu. Kakadu has one of the highest concentrations of Aboriginal rock art sites in the world. The Top End has been constantly occupied for more than 60,000 years, starting with the Aboriginal peoples.

Other geographic features of the image include the Clarence Strait, which separates the mainland from the Tiwi Islands, with Melville Island to the northwest and the smaller Bathurst Island to its west. The Strait connects the more confined, bowl-shaped Van Diemen Gulf to the Beagle Gulf. The water in the Van Diemen Gulf, as well as that surrounding the islands, appears to be full of blue-green swirls of phytoplankton.

Several fires are also visible on this image, marked with red dots.

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