Bouches du Rhône, France

Orbit 35762 Frame 2730 21 February 2002 10:27 GMT

Bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and stretching across South-Eastern France is the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (imaged here). The Rhône flows throughout it before it empties into the sea creating the Camargue (to the left), a large alluvial plain of salt marsh and swamp where horses, bulls, and many varieties of birds are protected.
Lake Vaccares (in the large rectangle) is in fact a natural reserve populated, among others, by egrets and flamingos.
Top left: the town of Nîmes with its airport.
In 1994, a dangerous rise in the water level of the Rhône, caused by heavy rainfalls and combined with a snow melt in the Alps, was the origin of a serious flood that affected the Camargue region. ERS imaged the area, in particular where the river divides in two branches near the town of Arles (within the large rectangular shape). Here the Western "Petit Rhône" branch broke its banks in several points (see text and images in Earth Watching).
Bottom centre image: the department of Bouches du Rhône, inspiration of Cezanne!
On the western coast, underneath Lake Vaccares: St.Marie de la Mer, surrounded by immense plains filled with ponds and wild lands. Fishing and boating port, it is famous for being the meeting place for gipsy people throughout the year.

Click on the thumbnail image to see a higher resolution version of this image; a very high resolution image, 1959 x 975 pixels, bytes, is also available.

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry