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
Situated in the southern Caribbean Sea about 20 km off of mainland Venezuela’s coast, the island comprises two peninsulas linked by a long, narrow strip of land – called an isthmus.
The eastern part of the island is home to most of the island’s residents, while the Macanao peninsula to the west is dominated by a central mountain range.
Between the peninsulas and cut off from the open sea by the isthmus lies the La Restinga lagoon, a national park that appears as a dark green and blue area in this image.
Recognized as a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention, the area features picturesque mangroves and is an important feeding ground for birds such as herons and flamingos. The shallow waters are home to red snappers, sardines and swordfish – among other types of fish – and oysters grow on the mangrove roots.
Japan's ALOS satellite captured this image on 26 June 2010 with its AVNIR-2 Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer.
ALOS was supported as a Third Party Mission, which means that ESA used its multi-mission ground systems to acquire, process, distribute and archive data from the satellite to its user community.
In April 2011 the satellite abruptly lost power while mapping Japan’s tsunami-hit coastline.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video program.
Image credit: JAXA/ESA
Lakes and mountains of western Uganda are captured in this Envisat radar image.
The area pictured is part of the Albertine Rift, a branch of the East African Rift where the Somali Plate is splitting away from the rest of the continent.
In the upper right corner is Lake George. With the equator running right through the middle, this body of water is recognized as a Wetland of International Importance by the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty for the sustainable use of wetlands.
Its waters flow into the Kazinga Channel – known for its high concentration of hippopotami and Nile crocodiles – and then empty into Lake Edward at lower left.
The colors in the two lakes and connecting channel indicate changes in water level between acquisitions. On either side of the channel, large craters and crater-lakes dot the volcanic fields.
At the top of the image, we can see the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (west).
Its highest peak topping 5100 m, the mountain chain is home to numerous glaciers, waterfalls and lakes. However, climate change has negatively affected the glaciers, and subsequently the mountains’ vegetation and biodiversity.
To the south of the mountains, the bright pink, purple and green areas show where changes in the land’s surface occurred between the three radar scans that make up this composite image. These changes are primarily in vegetation as the land here is blanketed with agricultural plots. There is even a clear-cut line where agricultural activities end and the protected land begins.
This image was created by combining two acquisitions from Envisat’s radar on 14 June 2007, 14 February 2008 and 3 July 2008 over the same area and it is featured on the Earth from Space video program.
Photo credit: ESA
The eastern end of the Gulf of Fonseca, in Honduras, was originally the site of extensive wetlands ecosystem, dominated by six species of mangroves. In 1986 (right image), the Landsat Thematic Mapper shows an environment minimally impacted by human activities. By 2009, when the ASTER image was acquired (left), hundreds of square kilometers of coastal swamps had been converted to shrimp ponds, appearing as blue rectangles near the water line. The images cover an area of 30 x 36 km, and are located at 13 degrees north latitude, 87.2 degrees west longitude.
Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
