Gulf of Mexico coast,satellite image. North is at left. Clouds are white. The Mississippi River,flowing south from left,enters the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans,Louisiana,USA,at upper centre. This river annually discharges 500 million tons of sediment into the Gulf,producing these swirling colours. This coastline stretches for over a thousand kilometres from the Texas coast (lower right),eastwards to Florida on the horizon at top right. Image data obtained on 22 January 2010,by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite,part of the Earth Observing System (EOS) |