Lake Eyre in South Australia is the terminal point for drainage in the Lake Eyre Basin, one of the
world’s largest internally draining systems. It sits 15 meters below sea level and is the largest
salt pan in the world. Spanning 9,300 square kilometers, the Lake Eyre salt pan fills with water a few times each century when the rivers of Queensland’s channel country in the northeast receive enough water to push through the dry maze of channels on the edge of the Simpson Desert.
This image was acquired by
Landsat 7’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensor on July 29, 1999. This is a false-color composite image made using shortwave
infrared, near-infrared, and blue wavelengths (ETM+ bands 7, 4, & 1).
Image provided by the
Goddard Space Flight Center’s Landsat Team and the Australian ground receiving station teams.