This image over a remote area in southern Iran was acquired by Japan’s ALOS satellite on 10 December 2009.
To the west we can see the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between the Gulf of Oman to the south and Persian Gulf to the north. The brown areas along the coast are sediments carried from rivers that flow only after erratic rainfall in the interior, usually in the winter months.
On the whole, the area pictured is extremely arid, as evident by the lack of vegetation. But in the upper left and slightly inland, we can see a green area that appears to be standing water from a human-made dam on the river.
The dark zones along the coast are wetlands at the deltas of the Rud-e-Gaz and Rud-e-Hara rivers. This extensive complex of tidal mudflats, creeks, salt marshes, mangroves, sandbanks and offshore islands is an important site for wintering waterbirds.
This is just one of the over 2000 sites worldwide considered to be wetlands of international importance by the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty for the sustainable use of wetlands.
Dedicated ESA programs assist the convention by providing satellite data to be used to monitor these important areas. With their repeating global coverage, satellites are ideal for imaging remote areas that require monitoring – like the wetland pictured here.
This picture is featured on the Earth from Space video program.
Image credit: JAXA/ESA
This colorful radar composite image shows changes in large-scale agricultural plots in southwest Iran.
The individual images were acquired by the radar on Japan’s ALOS satellite on 16 November, 16 May and 1 October 2010. Combined, the different colors show changes in the fields – such as harvesting at different points on time.
The most prominent fields in this image each measure about 1 km across. To the lower right, the smaller structures are ponds for aquaculture. Important fish for inland fisheries include carp, roach and mullet.
Running through the center of the image is the Karun River. It is the country’s only navigable river, originating in the Zagros mountains and running its 720 km course southwest and into the Shatt al-Arab river, which then flows into the Persian Gulf.
Clusters of bright white radar reflections indicate the presence of buildings and other human-made structures, such as those seen in the middle of the blocks of fields and along the river.
On the center-right side of the image, we can also see dots of white, evenly dispersed in a single row east-to-west. These are reflections from towers holding power lines. While these structures are difficult to spot in optical imagery – like the satellite images on Google Earth – their reflectivity makes them more visible to radar.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.
Image credit: JAXA/ESA
The Dasht-e Lut salt desert in southeast Iran is captured in this Envisat image.
The desert is often called the ‘hottest place on Earth’ as satellites measured record surface temperatures there for several years. The highest land surface temperature ever recorded was in the Lut Desert in 2005 at 70.7ºC, as measured by NASA’s Aqua satellite.
The light area in the center of the image are the long, parallel wind-carved ridges and furrows. The darker area to the east is an extent of massive sand dunes, some reaching up to 300 m tall.
In the upper-right section we can see a light green, shallow body of water that straddles Iran’s border with Afghanistan. With their arid surroundings, the wetlands in this border region have been a major source of food and fresh water for thousands of years, as well as an important stop for migratory birds. But irrigation expansion combined with droughts have caused the water levels in these wetlands to drop significantly – and some years even dry up.
In the lower-left we can see the white, snow-capped Jebal Barez mountains.
A major earthquake struck about 100 km east of the snow-caps in 2003, its epicenter near the ancient city of Bam (lower-central portion of image). Iran experiences frequent tectonic activity as several major fault lines cross the country.
This image was acquired by Envisat’s MERIS instrument on 2 April 2012 and is also featured on the Earth from Space video program.
Photo credit: ESA
This image acquired over the Middle East shows the northern end of the Persian Gulf, along with the border of Iran and Iraq and the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab river.
The main part of the image covers Iran’s southern Khuzestan Province on the Persian Gulf.
The lines cutting through the middle of the image are roads, as well as the Trans-Iranian Railway.
In the upper-left corner, we can see part of the Karun River. It is the country’s only navigable river, originating in the Zagros mountains and running its 720 km course southwest and into the Shatt al-Arab river.
In addition to the Karun, the Shatt al-Arab also carries water from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian Gulf.
In the lower-left corner, we can see the Shatt al-Arab where it creates part of the border with Iraq. The marshy Faw Peninsula (part of which is visible to the extreme left) is the site of a number of important Iraqi oil installations.
The Persian Gulf and its coastal areas are the world’s largest single source of crude oil, with related industries dominating the region.
The center of the image is dominated by the marshes and mudflats of the Shadegan wildlife refuge. It is the largest wetland in Iran, and plays a significant role in the natural ecology of the area.
The area provides a wintering habitat for a wide variety of migratory birds, and is the most important site in the world for a rare species of aquatic bird – the marbled duck.
The northern part of the wetland is a vital freshwater habitat for many endangered species.
This image was acquired on 26 July 2012 by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper on Landsat 7. Landsat 7 imagery accounts for the largest parts of Earth’s surface displayed on web mapping services such as Google Earth and Google Maps.
Image credit: USGS/ESA
On April 9, 2013 at 11:52 GMT, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit southwestern Iran's Bushehr province near the town of Kaki. Preliminary information is that several villages have been destroyed and many people have died, as reported by BBC News. This perspective view of the region was acquired November 17, 2012, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. The location of the earthquake's epicenter is marked with a yellow star. Vegetation is displayed in red; the vertical exaggeration of the topography is 2X. The image is centered near 28.5 degrees north latitude, 51.6 degrees east longitude.
Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
