Images
March 29, 2022 - Greening in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan
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Spring brings rising temperatures across Central Asia and the rapid melting of winter’s snowpack. As the high elevation snow turns into water, the life-giving liquid refreshes the landscape, filling rivers and bringing a flush of green to the landscape.
On March 28, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of spring greening in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Scant snow remains on the peaks of Afghanistan’s Paropamisus Mountains while a wide swath of green covers a large area of at the edge of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan (northwest) as well as Afghanistan. In the upper left (northwest) corner of the image, a fan of lighter green can be seen. This is the Murgab Fan, a broad plain of the Murgab, a river that rises in the Paropamisus Mountains and carries water to this rich agricultural region. Despite the greening, the arid nature of the sandy desert still dominates the scene, as a cloud of dust crosses between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan just north of the bright green patch.
While this single image gives a clear view of a spring day in Central Asia, comparing two images of the same place taken on different days can give a much better insight of change over time. Thanks to the NASA Worldview App, this is simple to accomplish. To view a roll-over comparison between this Aqua MODIS image acquired on March 28 and one acquired in mid-winter (January 25) click
here.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/28/2022
Resolutions:
1km (59.7 KB), 500m (116.6 KB), 250m (404.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Spring brings rising temperatures across Central Asia and the rapid melting of winter’s snowpack. As the high elevation snow turns into water, the life-giving liquid refreshes the landscape, filling rivers and bringing a flush of green to the landscape.
On March 28, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of spring greening in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Scant snow remains on the peaks of Afghanistan’s Paropamisus Mountains while a wide swath of green covers a large area of at the edge of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan (northwest) as well as Afghanistan. In the upper left (northwest) corner of the image, a fan of lighter green can be seen. This is the Murgab Fan, a broad plain of the Murgab, a river that rises in the Paropamisus Mountains and carries water to this rich agricultural region. Despite the greening, the arid nature of the sandy desert still dominates the scene, as a cloud of dust crosses between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan just north of the bright green patch.
While this single image gives a clear view of a spring day in Central Asia, comparing two images of the same place taken on different days can give a much better insight of change over time. Thanks to the NASA Worldview App, this is simple to accomplish. To view a roll-over comparison between this Aqua MODIS image acquired on March 28 and one acquired in mid-winter (January 25) click here.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/28/2022
Resolutions:
1km (59.7 KB), 500m (116.6 KB), 250m (404.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
