erable coal remaining. Once they end operations, coal mining companies are required by law to reclaim the land, a requirement that Landsat can help verify in the decades to come.
New Delhi Among Fastest Growing Urban Areas in the World June 28, 2016
In a world becoming increasingly urbanized, few cities have seen growth as dramatic as that occurring in India’s capital of New Delhi.
These Landsat images from March 1991 and March 2016 show the city and its adjacent suburban areas—known collectively as Delhi. The area’s population ballooned from 9.4 million to 25 million during that period. Only Tokyo is more populated today with a population of 38 million. The United Nation’s Report on World Urbanization projects that Delhi will be at 37 million residents by 2030.
Landsat can be a valuable tool in monitoring urban growth and its impact on the environment. Adjacent forests and agricultural fields converted to streets, parking lots, and rooftops can affect wildlife habitat. Rainfall blocked by impervious surfaces from soaking into the soil can pool and increase local flooding. Chemicals present on the pavement at the time of rain can be carried away with runoff, reducing water quality and threatening aquatic ecosystems downstream.
All are important considerations—in Delhi or any area undergoing significant growth—when it comes to discussions about urban planning. From a regional standpoint at least, and from an environmental one, Landsat is an important part of that conversation.
Large Wildfire Consumes Boreal Forest in Eastern Russia June 22, 2016
A massive wildfire on the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia has consumed nearly 600,000 acres of boreal forest and tundra since late May 2016.
Shortwave infrared bands on Landsat 7 used in combination with the visible red band revealed a large, brown burn scar on June 10, 2016, compared to 11 months earlier—on July 18, 2015—when Landsat 8 captured an image showing healthy, growing forest vegetation. Fires appear orange in the 2016 image, and smoke from the fires is light blue.
The Siberian Times reported that smoke from the Russian wildfire was “producing exceptional sunsets” in the western United States and Canada. The newspaper attributed the Kamchatka fire and others this spring in eastern Russia in part to an unusually warm and dry winter, and faster than normal snowmelt.
The Kamchatka Peninsula occupies an area of roughly 100,000 square miles, with the Pacific Ocean to the east of the peninsula and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west. Most of the fire has been on the western side of the peninsula, north of the Kharyryuzova River.
Beaufort Sea Ice Experiences Unusually Early Breakup June 13, 2016
Ice covering Beaufort Sea near the Arctic Ocean typically reaches full-blown breakup by late May each year as air and water temperatures warm, and as daylight turns longer. But 2016 has been dramatically different.
This year, significant breakup and fracturing of the sea ice had occurred by mid-April, as seen in these Landsat 8 images acquired almost exactly a year apart. On April 13, 2015, the ice is largely intact, though fracturing has begun. A year later, on April 15, 2016, much more open water is visible.
Ice specialists with NASA say this year’s breakup is attributable to unusually warm air temperatures during the first months of the year, and to strong winds caused by a stalled high-pressure system over the area. The same warmth that fueled the massive Fort McMurray wildfire in northern Alberta earlier in May is part of the weather pattern affecting the Beaufort Sea.
Though the region was once covered by thicker, multi-year ice, it now has largely seasonal, first-year ice that is thinner, weaker, and more easily broken up by strong winds. While the early breakup hints to the possibility that 2016 could ultimately witness the lowest sea ice extent in the history of satellite recording, that, of course, will depend on the weather conditions in the coming months. Future Landsat acquisitions will help scientists monitor the area and visualize changes.
The surface level of Lake M