The Mississippi River, among the longest rivers in North America, is included in this multi-temporal radar image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 objective. Credit: Contains customized Copernicus Sentinel data (2022 ), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Mississippi River, a major river in the United States, is featured in this multi-temporal radar image caught by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. It is the second-longest river in the U.S. (and all of North America), edged out by simply a little bit by the Missouri River. It is the 11th longest river in the world.
The Mississippi River is one of the worlds significant river systems in size, environment variety, and biological performance. The river flows 2,340 miles (3766 km) from its source at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota through the center of the continental United States to the Gulf of Mexico.
The area pictured here shows where the Mississippi straddles the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. The image integrates three radar acquisitions from the Sentinel-1 objective taken 12 days apart to reveal changes in crop and land conditions in time. Bright colors in the image originated from changes on the ground that have happened between acquisitions.
The Mississippi River, a significant river in the United States, is included in this multi-temporal radar image recorded by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 objective. It is the second-longest river in the U.S. (and all of North America), edged out by simply a small bit by the Missouri River. It is the 11th longest river in the world.
Water bodies, including the Mississippi River, visible on the far right, and Catahoula Lake, on the far left, appear black as water surface areas show the radar signal away from the satellite. The Mississippi River Basin is home to a variety of farming activities.
Water bodies, including the Mississippi River, noticeable on the far right, and Catahoula Lake, on the far left, appear black as water surface areas reflect the radar signal away from the satellite. We can see cargo ships traveling along the Mississippi if we take a closer appearance. Ships from April 7, 2022, appear in red, those from April 19 appear in green, and those from May 1 appear in blue.
This episode of the Earth From Space program includes a Copernicus Sentinel-1 radar picture of the Mississippi River, one of the longest rivers in North America. Credit: ESA– European Space Agency
White areas in the image indicate the numerous kinds of plant life that surrounds the river, consisting of the Kisatchie National Forest– the only national forest in Louisiana. The Mississippi is a timeless example of a meandering alluvial river with its loops and curls along its course leaving meander scars, cutoffs, and free-standing oxbow lakes.
The Mississippi River Basin is house to a variety of farming activities. Nutrient-rich soil from sediment deposits through the floodplain supports cropland near to the river and its tributaries. Rectangular fields in the image are cultivated land. The farming of cotton and soybean make up a considerable part of the locations economic production.
Copernicus Sentinel-1 carries a sophisticated synthetic aperture radar that works in numerous specialized modes to offer in-depth imagery for Europes Copernicus program. It also supplies information to map changing land cover, ground contortion, ice shelves, and glaciers, and can be utilized to assist emergency response when disasters such as floods strike and to support humanitarian relief efforts at times of crisis.
Sentinel-1A was the very first satellite to be launched for Copernicus– the Earth observation part of the European Unions area program. Looking ahead, the upcoming Sentinel-1C satellite scheduled to take off on ESAs Vega-C rocket from Europes Spaceport in French Guiana in the first half of 2023, will continue the critical job of delivering essential radar imagery for a large range of services, applications, and science.
The satellite is now at Thales Alenia Spaces Cannes plant on the French Riviera after it effectively completed all combination tests this summer in Rome, Italy. It will now go through a last series of tests in Cannes, including radiofrequency performance checks in the facilitys anechoic chamber.
This image is also featured on the Earth From Space video program embedded above.