English: Most of the peninsula is tropical savanna, which is made up of a mixture of grasslands, shrubs, and small trees which are just beginning to green-up as spring progresses into summer. A thin perimeter line of dark green along the coast marks tropical forestland, while the red tones to the The Cape York Peninsula juts northward from mainland Australia and appears somewhat like a thumb on a tan-and green mitten when viewed from space. rugged interior of Queensland, seen in the south of the image, are typical of arid countryside.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of a late spring day in northeastern Australia on December 12, 2017.

The Gulf of Carpentaria lies west of the Cape York Peninsula while the Coral Sea laps against its eastern shores. The Great Barrier Reef runs parallel to the coastline in the Coral Sea, but the lacy clouds and area of sunglint making viewing this natural wonder difficult. Sunglint, which is the silvery-gray area to the east of Cape York, is an optical phenomena that occurs when the light of the sun reflects off the surface of water at the same angle that the satellite sensor views it. The result is a mirror-like specular reflection of the sunlight off the water.