This image from Copernicus Sentinel-2, acquired on 5 April 2026, shows the Etosha National Park in northern Namibia.
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The area is a game reserve featuring a large salt flat – the Etosha Pan – as well as numerous smaller salt pans, with vegetation shown in red in this false-colour image.
The Etosha Pan, which spans roughly 130 km from east to west and covers 4760 sq km, appears bright white to human eyes. The colours in this image, however, range from the white expanses of salt to light blue where water contains cloudy sediment, and dark blue where the water is clearer.
The image was acquired at the beginning of the dry season, when average daily temperatures typically range from 14°C to 30°C. Water is also still present in the smaller salt pans that dot the landscape northwest of the Etosha Pan, the biggest of which is the Natukanaoka Pan. The water in these small ‘lakes’ appears in shades of green and blue.
The Ekuma river, near the centre of the image, is seen flowing from Lake Oponono at an elevation of about 1200 m above sea level, southwards to the salt flat at 1030 m. Lake Oponono is able to hold water from one wet season to the next and is a habitat for flamingos and cattle.
The vegetation surrounding the Etosha Pan – shown in striking red by Sentinel-2’s near-infrared channel – consists mainly of grassland, savannas and mopane woodland. Mopane trees are the dominant type of vegetation across the eastern and central areas of the national park, showing up as dark, vibrant red in this image. They provide a habitat for elephants, giraffe and leopards. The savannahs, in the west and southern areas of the park, are home to wildebeest, lions and springbok.
Patches of red are also visible on the Etosha Pan, suggesting vegetation is present. While few plants thrive in the salty clay terrain, some types of blue-green algae and salt-tolerant grasses have adapted to the harsh environment.
Sentinel-2 carries a multispectral imager, which detects light in 13 spectral bands – in contrast to the human eye, which can see only three spectral bands (red, blue and green). This allows the mission to capture near-infrared and short-wave infrared light, creating false-colour images that highlight specific features on the landscape. Since healthy plants reflect more near-infrared light, the areas with vibrant red correlate to areas where vegetation is dense.