September 2, 2019 - Timor Sea

On August 30, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image centered on the Timor Sea.

The Timor Sea sits southeast of the island of Timor and northwest of Australia. The waters cover about 235,000 square miles 610,000 square km) and opens in the west to the Indian Ocean and east into the Arafura Sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is considered a shallow sea, with an average depth of less than 650 feet (200 meters) over most of the area, but drops to a maximum depth of more than 10,800 feet (3,300 meters) in the Timor Trench, located in the north.

Several islands of Indonesia can be seen in the northwest section of the image. The largest one, aligned on a southwest to northeast axis, is the island of Timor. Northwestern Australia occupies the southeast corner of the image. Sediment from rivers and the coast of Australia colors the water in tans and turquoise.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 8/30/2019
Resolutions: 1km (1.8 MB), 500m (5.3 MB), 250m (4.1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC