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February 5, 2026 - Botswana's Amazing Salt Pans
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On February 1, 2026, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this remarkable true color image of a remarkable place—the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.
The salt-laden ephemeral lakes hold water only during the rainy season, which typically begins in November in northern Botswana. Once the rains stop, temperatures rise and water evaporates until little more than a thick salt crust remains. In the rainy season, the massive salt flats provide home to more than 165 species of birds, including the Great and the Lesser Flamingo. The flats are also mined for their salt year-round. The salt works can be seen as a pink area in the northeastern part of the pans.
Today, there are three salt flats (salt pans) that collectively make up the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. The largest is the Ntwetwe pan, the second largest is the Sua pan, and the smallest is the Nxai pan, which sits just north of the Sua pan. They are the remnants of a massive inland sea that filled this portion of the Kalahari Desert about 2 million years ago, which spread over 80,000 to 275,000 square kilometers (30,900 to 106,200 square miles) at its peak. About 10,000 years ago tectonic shifts in the region and changes in elevation shifted the course of rivers that fed the lake and it slowly began to dry up. Today the Makgadikgadi Pans cover a much smaller area than ancient lake but are still considered one of the largest salt flats on Earth.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 2/1/2026
Resolutions:
1km (78.1 KB), 500m (204.3 KB), 250m (223 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
On February 1, 2026, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this remarkable true color image of a remarkable place—the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.
The salt-laden ephemeral lakes hold water only during the rainy season, which typically begins in November in northern Botswana. Once the rains stop, temperatures rise and water evaporates until little more than a thick salt crust remains. In the rainy season, the massive salt flats provide home to more than 165 species of birds, including the Great and the Lesser Flamingo. The flats are also mined for their salt year-round. The salt works can be seen as a pink area in the northeastern part of the pans.
Today, there are three salt flats (salt pans) that collectively make up the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. The largest is the Ntwetwe pan, the second largest is the Sua pan, and the smallest is the Nxai pan, which sits just north of the Sua pan. They are the remnants of a massive inland sea that filled this portion of the Kalahari Desert about 2 million years ago, which spread over 80,000 to 275,000 square kilometers (30,900 to 106,200 square miles) at its peak. About 10,000 years ago tectonic shifts in the region and changes in elevation shifted the course of rivers that fed the lake and it slowly began to dry up. Today the Makgadikgadi Pans cover a much smaller area than ancient lake but are still considered one of the largest salt flats on Earth.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 2/1/2026
Resolutions:
1km (78.1 KB), 500m (204.3 KB), 250m (223 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
