 Because of its geologic age and geographic isolation, more than 80 percent of the lake’s freshwater species are found only at Lake Baikal.
A narrow sand spit stretches across the lake’s north end to form Yarki Island, which separates the northernmost shoreline from the open water. This long, discontinuous land surface is the result of accumulated sediments from several rivers flowing in from the north, combined with the interaction of these sediments with incoming waves, wind, and storms from the main lake to the south. The shallow lagoon that is created behind Yarki Island is filled with relatively warm waters and peat deposits, and forms an important bird sanctuary.
This Landsat image shows the area around Yarki Island and northernmost Lake Baikal. The green tones in the lagoon area depict vegetative sediments. The mouth of the Verkhnaya Angara River can be seen on the right side of the image.
The vast archive of Landsat images helps researchers and scientists monitor the Earth’s ecosystems, and provides unbiased evidence of how changes can affect these ecosystems worldwide.
Near the southernmost tip of Africa lies the Sundays River Valley, an agricultural area rich in citrus fruit production. Urban settlements and orchards in the subtropical climate are aided by a well-developed irrigation system that was established in the early 1920s with the construction of a dam upstream of the area shown in these images.
These Landsat images show the Sundays River Valley area in November 1986, and again the same month in 2013. Orchards can be seen expanding along both sides of this stretch of river. The bright green colors indicate orchards and agricultural lands, and pinkish hues indicate unused parcels.
Landsat imagery is valuable for measuring and monitoring land use and land use changes across the Earth’s landscape.
These Landsat images show portions of the Cordoba and San Luis provinces in central Argentina. The urban area to the right of image center is Villa Dolores. To the north and east of the urban area, the Embalse Allende (“Vineyard Dam”) can be seen in the two images.
This region has been long noted as an important center for potato production. In this semiarid climate, a double crop is possible when the potatoes are given enough moisture through irrigation. Other important local crops include wine grapes, olives, tobacco, walnuts, and jojoba.
These two images show 20 years of change to the agricultural landscape. The first image was acquired in January 1994 and shows areas of active cropland (bright green and lighter tones). The second image, from January 2014, shows apparent conversion of additional areas to agricultural use. The bright green circles indicate center pivot irrigation systems, which have been installed over the past two decades.
Since both images were acquired during the same time of year (mid-January) the overall difference in color tones also suggests a difference in weather conditions between the two years. The 1994 image (green) was likely a year of higher precipitation, compared to the 2014 image (brown) which has been relatively dry.
Landsat imagery is an important tool for monitoring change to the Earth’s landscape over time.
32 Years of Change: Incheon, South Korea February 25, 2014
The shoreline area of Incheon, South Korea, has been changing dramatically over the past 32 years, as depicted by these Landsat images acquired in 1981 and again in 2013. Previous marsh areas have been turned into usable land through land reclamation. Urban growth has also expanded.
In the center of these images, previously separate islands have been joined together as reclaimed land to become home to Incheon International Airport. The airport opened in 2001 and is now one of the largest and busiest in the world. The new Incheon Bridge (also called the Incheon Grand Bridge) can also be seen in the second image; it opened in October 2009.
The Landsat archive contains 40 years of data, which allows users to see changes as they are occurring throughout the Earth’s landscape.
On January 15, 2014, lightning sparked a 