File:Columbia River (MODIS 2019-06-21).jpg

English: The Columbia River, the largest river in the Pacific Northwest, rises from Columbia Lake high near the crest of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. Flowing northwesterly for about 190 miles (305 km), the river then turns south to cross the border between Canada and the United States, and then sweeps across the state of Washington in a sweeping curve before forming the boundary between Washington and Oregon. Heading towards the mountains, the Columbia River cuts through the Cascades at the Columbia River Gorge on its way to pour into the Pacific Ocean. It is the only river to cut through the Cascade Range.

Many dams built along the river provide hydroelectric power to the region. The Columbia is also famous for its annual run of salmon as steelhead, providing fishing opportunities as the fish swim north to breed and renew their population. Unfortunately, the numbers of salmon and steelhead returning to this river has been dropping, with the 2019 salmon run poor enough to prompt Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife to close Chinook salmon fishing in the Columbia River in May. Bag limits for all salmon and steelhead, other than Coho salmon, will also be reduced.

On June 15, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the Columbia River as it snakes it way across Washington’s relatively dry Columbia Plateau and enters the Columbia Gorge in the heavily vegetated and green Cascades Mountains.