A soft, white shimmer of Sun glows like a star in the turquoise waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico along the coast of the state of Campeche on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The Sun bleaches the waters pooled on the coast as white as sand. Shown in the infrared, lush vegetation burns fiery red across the region, while wetlands and marshes bruise the landscape with their mixture of life and water. Rivers meander northward, stepping their way into the vast and swirling Laguna de Terminos via smaller, intricately shaped ponds and lagoons. The barrier island Isla Del Carmen shelters the lagoon to the north, while sinuous, blue currents slide into the lagoon past Cuidad de Carmen on the island’s western tip.

This scene was acquired by the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite on May 2, 2002.

Image provided by the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch as part of the Earth as Art II image series