Huge sediment loads from the interior of the country flow through the Mouths of the Amazon River, Brazil (0.5S, 50.0W). The river current carries hundreds of tons of sediment through the multiple outlets of the great river over 100 miles from shore before it is carried northward by oceanic currents. The characteristic "fair weather cumulus" pattern of low clouds over the land but not over water may be observed in this scene.

This view shows the confluence of the Amazon and the Topajos Rivers at Santarem, Brazil (2.0S, 55.0W). The Am,azon flows from lower left to upper right of the photo. Below the river juncture of the Amazon and Tapajos, there is considerable deforestation activity along the Trans-Amazon Highway.

A paper led by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory estimates the total volume of water in Earth's rivers – called river storage – on average between 1980 and 2009, and maps out the results for the planet's major hydrological regions. This graphic, adapted from data gathered for the paper, indicates the amount of storage by hydrologic regions that contain one or more river basins, with shades of blue deepening as the amount of storage increases. The paper, published in Nature Geoscience in April 2024, calculated Earth's river storage at about 539 cubic miles (2,246 cubic kilometers), and found that the Amazon River basin, shown in dark blue in South America, was the region with the most storage, with 204 cubic miles (850 cubic kilometers), or about 38% of the global total. The study also estimated the flow of water through more than 3 million segments of river around the world and identified several locations marked by intense human water use, including parts of the Colorado River basin in the United States, portions of the Amazon basin in South America, the Orange River basin in southern Africa, and the Murray-Darling basin in southeastern Australia. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26119

This view of deforestation in Rondonia, far western Brazil, (10.0S, 63.0W) is part of an agricultural resettlement project which ultimately covers an area about 80% the size of France. The patterns of deforestation in this part of the Amazon River Basin are usually aligned adjacent to highways, secondary roads, and streams for ease of access and transportation. Compare this view with the earlier 51G-37-062 for a comparison of deforestation in the region.

STS058-107-083 (18 Oct.-1 Nov. 1993) --- A near-nadir view of the mouth of the Amazon River, that shows all signs of being a relatively healthy system, breathing and exhaling. The well-developed cumulus field over the forested areas on both the north and south sides of the river (the view is slightly to the west) shows that good evapotranspiration is underway. The change in the cloud field from the moisture influx from the Atlantic (the cloud fields over the ocean are parallel to the wind direction) to perpendicular cloud fields over the land surface are normal. This change in direction is caused by the increased surface roughness over the land area. The plume of the river, although turbid, is no more or less turbid than it has been reported since the Portuguese first rounded Brasil's coast at the end of the 15th Century.

STS058-76-041 (18 Oct-1 Nov 1993) --- Backdropped against the Peru-Bolivia border and part of the Amazon basin, the Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-2) laboratory module was captured with a 70mm camera, by one of the seven crew members inside the Space Shuttle Columbia's cabin. Part of the tunnel-like passageway is visible in the foreground. Six NASA astronauts and a veterinarian from the private sector spent two weeks devoted to medical research in Earth-orbit. Lake Titicaca, the largest high-altitude lake in the world lies in the Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru. Space Shuttle photography has been used to document fluctuations of several meters of the level of Lake Titicaca during the past decade, as well as to document the eutrophication of the north end of the lake, which is primarily due to increased population in the Peruvian shoreline areas. This view shows the effect of abnormally heavy precipitation of the region for the third successive year. Meteorologists feel this precipitation increase, which may portend another increase of the lake level, is due to the third successive El Nino - Southern Oscillation phenomenon in the 1993 - 94 southern hemisphere summertime. This global phenomenon is now resulting in major weather disturbances in Indonesia, California, Texas and elsewhere.

These two false-color images of the Manaus region of Brazil in South America were acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C and X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar on board the space shuttle Endeavour. The image at left was acquired on April 12, 1994, and the image at right was acquired on October 3, 1994. The area shown is approximately 8 kilometers by 40 kilometers (5 miles by 25 miles). The two large rivers in this image, the Rio Negro (at top) and the Rio Solimoes (at bottom), combine at Manaus (west of the image) to form the Amazon River. The image is centered at about 3 degrees south latitude and 61 degrees west longitude. North is toward the top left of the images. The false colors were created by displaying three L-band polarization channels: red areas correspond to high backscatter, horizontally transmitted and received, while green areas correspond to high backscatter, horizontally transmitted and vertically received. Blue areas show low returns at vertical transmit/receive polarization; hence the bright blue colors of the smooth river surfaces can be seen. Using this color scheme, green areas in the image are heavily forested, while blue areas are either cleared forest or open water. The yellow and red areas are flooded forest or floating meadows. The extent of the flooding is much greater in the April image than in the October image and appears to follow the 10-meter (33-foot) annual rise and fall of the Amazon River. The flooded forest is a vital habitat for fish, and floating meadows are an important source of atmospheric methane. These images demonstrate the capability of SIR-C/X-SAR to study important environmental changes that are impossible to see with optical sensors over regions such as the Amazon, where frequent cloud cover and dense forest canopies block monitoring of flooding. Field studies by boat, on foot and in low-flying aircraft by the University of California at Santa Barbara, in collaboration with Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Pesguisas Estaciais, during the first and second flights of the SIR-C/X-SAR system have validated the interpretation of the radar images. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01735

STS046-80-009 (31 July-8 Aug. 1992) --- A view of the mouth of the Amazon River and the Amazon Delta shows a large sediment plume expanding outward into the Atlantic Ocean. The sediment plume can be seen hugging the coast north of the Delta. This is caused by the west-northwest flowing Guyana Current. The large island of Marajo is partially visible through the clouds.