Mouth of the Amazon – MERIS – 25 March 2002

Flowing more than 6400 kilometres across Brazil, the Amazon River originates in the Peruvian Andes. Second in length only to the Nile River, the Amazon carries with it huge amounts of sediments picked up from lands it crosses. On average, the Amazon deposits three million tonnes of sediment every day into the Atlantic Ocean. This outpouring of water and sediment is so vast that the salt content and colour of the Atlantic Ocean are altered for a distance of several hundred kilometres from the mouth of the river.

Technical Information:
Instrument: MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS)
Date of Acquisition: 25 March 2002
Orbit number: 00350
Instrument features: Full resolution image (300-meter resolution)