SPACEPHOTOS

The flat coastal plain in southeast Texas is the setting for Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange. The color infrared film helps to discriminate such features as the swampy, coastal prairies; red concentrations of woodlands (primarily pine); and land-water boundaries. Visible are the Neches River and its floodplain immediately east of Beaumont and Port Arthur; part of the dredged Neches River (Beaumont Ship Channel) that allows oceangoing ships to navigate inland to the port of Beaumont; and part of the Intracoastal Waterway that roughly parallels the coastline. The lower Sabine River is apparent entering Sabine Lake, which connects with the Gulf of Mexico via a dredged channel. Discernible are some highways in Orange (bottom center of photograph), large rice fields west of Beaumont and Port Arthur, and Interstate Highway 10 traversing Beaumont (top to bottom of photograph).