A satellite image published this week shows Etosha National Park in northern Namibia at the start of the dry season. The park is a game reserve with a huge salt flat, the Etosha Pan. The pan stretches roughly 130 kilometers from east to west and covers 4,760 square kilometers. Seen with the naked eye, the pan looks bright white. The image, taken by a Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on 5 April 2026, is in false color.
Vegetation appears red because the satellite records near-infrared light, which healthy plants reflect strongly. Water with cloudy sediment shows up light blue, while clearer water looks dark blue. Smaller salt pans northwest of the main flat still hold water at this time of year. The Ekuma River flows from Lake Oponono, about 1,200 meters above sea level, down to the salt flat at 1,030 meters. Around the pan, mopane woodland shelters elephants, giraffes, and leopards, while the savanna is home to wildebeest, lions, and springbok. Sentinel-2 detects 13 bands of light, compared with the three the human eye can see.