August 9, 2019 - Madagascar

Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, sits about 250 miles (400 km) off the southeastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Isolated from any neighbors, the Great Red Island has developed ecosystems unlike any other on Earth.

Three parallel geographic zones stretch longitudinally across Madagascar: the central plateau, the coastal strip in the east, and a zone of low plateaus and plains in the west.

In southern Madagascar, ecoregions also roughly follow the geography. The eastern coast consists primarily of Madagascar lowland forests, a humid region filled with tropical moist broadleaf trees. Such regions are also often called "jungles". The vegetation found in the drier, red-soiled central plateau belongs to Madagascar subhumid forests (tropical moist broadleaf forest) or, in the highest altitudes, ericoid thickets. It’s in the ericoid thickets where more than 25 species of endemic orchid can be found. Along the western side of the island, in the dry rain shadow of the central plateau, lie succulent woodlands, with mangrove forests in a few locations along the coast. It's at the southwestern tip of the island, where plants have adapted to a dry desert-like climate, the Madagascar spiny thicket. Plants in this region seem to be part-way between more common cactus and trees—sporting small leaves and spines, but also bearing tall trunks.

On August 5, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a stunning true-color image of the island of Madagascar.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 8/5/2019
Resolutions: 1km (1002.1 KB), 500m (2.9 MB), 250m (2.5 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC