Amazon River Spills into the Atlantic Ocean

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite captured this true-color image of the sediment-rich fresh water of the Amazon mixing with the salt water of the Atlantic at the river’s mouth on July 27, 2017. Research suggests that the Amazon River delivers approximately 754 million tons of sediment to the Atlantic each year. About 20 percent of this supply forms fluid mud and mud banks that migrate in a 1,500 km long coastal belt from the mouth of the Amazon River northward to the Orinoco River. However, it’s worth noting that, although it looks like it in this image, the Amazon does not form a true delta. The Atlantic has sufficient wave and tidal energy to carry most of the Amazon’s sediments out to sea. True-color imagery is created using three of the VIIRS instrument’s 22 channels — the RGB color channels 5, 4, and 3, which are sensitive to the red, green, and blue wavelengths of light respectively. In addition, data from several other channels are also included to cancel out atmospheric interference, such as clouds and aerosols, which can cause a blurry picture.