Earth from Space - Image Description

STS091-702-023 Ganges River, India June 1998
A small section of the meandering Ganges River (ribbon-like, light-colored feature), the major river of the Indian subcontinent, skirts along the northern edge of the Rajmahal Hills (darker landscape, bottom center). These brownish-looking, vegetated hills rise between 500 feet (150 meters) to over 1000 feet (300 meters) above the surrounding plains. The Hindu people believe that the Ganges River is the most sacred river in the world. The river's broad floodplain contains many interconnected channels. The south draining, meandering Mahananda River (smaller, light-colored line-bottom left) converges with the main channel of the Ganges near the center of the image. Downstream from the confluence of these two rivers a railroad bridge (straight line crossing the Ganges) and a drainage canal (thin, straight, light-colored line) can be identified. The bridge crossing is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) northwest of the Indian-Bangladesh border.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.