Earth from Space: Namibia’s biggest salt pan

What happened

This image from Copernicus Sentinel-2 , acquired on 5 April 2026, shows the Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. The image was acquired at the beginning of the dry season, when average daily temperatures typically range from 14°C to 30°C.

Zoom in to explore this image at its full resolution. The area is a game reserve featuring a large salt flat – the Etosha Pan – as well as numerous smaller salt pans, with vegetation shown in red in this false-colour image.

The Etosha Pan, which spans roughly 130 km from east to west and covers 4760 sq km, appears bright white to human eyes. The colours in this image, however, range from the white expanses of salt to light blue where water contains cloudy sediment, and dark blue where the water is clearer.

Water is also still present in the smaller salt pans that dot the landscape northwest of the Etosha Pan, the biggest of which is the Natukanaoka Pan. The water in these small ‘lakes’ appears in shades of green and blue.