A speck of green

The Niger river captured from the International Space Station on 22 October 2023 by ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. When Andreas shared the picture on social media, he said:

"I tried, unsuccessfully, to take a photo of Timbuktu, a city in Mali on the edge of the Saharan desert. Instead, I ended up with this picture, which puzzled me. It looks like a river delta, but I didn’t know such a thing could exist inland, far from the sea. It turns out that it is an inland river delta and that it is an unusual feature of the Niger River. It is the main river in West Africa, running through several countries like Guinea, Nigeria and acts like the border between Benin and Niger, providing a key source for travel and food in the region.

It is impressive to see this rich, green wetlands in the middle of the dry, brown Saharan desert that surrounds it."

Visit Huginn mission page to learn more about Andreas' mission.