Earth  ID: 3112

Aral Sea Evaporation (WMS)

Visualizations by Joycelyn Thomson Released on February 15, 2005
The Aral Sea is actually not a sea at all, but an immense fresh water lake. In the last thirty years, more than sixty percent of the lake has disappeared because much of the river flow feeding the lake was diverted to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. Concentrations of salts and minerals began to rise in the shrinking body of water, leading to staggering alterations in the lake's ecology and precipitous drops in the Aral's fish population. Powerful winds that blow across this part of Asia routinely pick up and deposit the now exposed lake bed soil. This has contributed to a significant reduction in breathable air quality, and crop yields have been appreciably affected due to heavily salt laden particles falling on arable land. This series of Landsat images taken in 1973, 1987 and 2000 show the profound reduction in overall area at the north end of the Aral, and a commensurate increase in land area as the floor of the sea now lies exposed.
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An animation of the evaporation of the Aral Sea using Landsat imagery from 1973, 1987, and 2000.

This product is available through our Web Map Service.
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A Landsat-1 image of the northern part of the Aral Sea, taken on May 29, 1973.
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A Landsat-4 image of the northern part of the Aral Sea, taken on August 19, 1987.
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A Landsat-7 image of the northern part of the Aral Sea, taken on July 29, 2000.

For More Information

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/earthday2001/index.html

Visualization Credits

Joycelyn Thomson (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Darrel Williams (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3112

Mission:
Landsat

Data Used:
Landsat-1/MSS
1973/05/29
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Landsat-4/MSS
1987/08/19
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Landsat-7/ETM+
2000/07/29
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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
WMS

Keywords:
DLESE >> Agricultural science
DLESE >> Biology
DLESE >> Chemical oceanography
DLESE >> Chemistry
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Human geography
DLESE >> Hydrology
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Aquatic Habitat >> Lakes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Environmental Impacts >> Water Management
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Habitat Conversion/Fragmentation >> Irrigation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Surface Water >> Lakes
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0