December 6, 2021 - Ice formation on Lake Balkhash
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Lake Balkash
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On November 29, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of
an icy Lake Balkhash.
Frigid weather comes fast to east-central Kazakhstan, and as
temperatures drop, ice forms quickly. On November 12, satellite imagery
revealed no ice on Lake Balkhash and temperatures in the city of
Balkhash, located on the northern shore of the lake, ranged from a high
of 41˚F (5˚C) to a low of 23˚F (5˚C). By November 19, the city sat
under significant cloud cover and registered lows of about 1˚F
(-17.2˚C) with a maximum temperature of 21˚F (-6˚C). By November 20,
the clouds parted to reveal ice clinging to the southwestern shoreline
and a small amount of floating ice in the western section of the lake.
Nine days later, this image reveals that almost all of the western
portion of Lake Balkhash was covered by ice, but the eastern section
remained ice-free.
Spanning an area of 17,000 square kilometers (6,564 sq. mi), Lake
Balkhash is the largest lake in Central Asia and the fifteenth largest
in the world. A narrow constriction near the center of the lake splits
it into two portions, each significantly different than the other. The
western part of the lake receives water from the large Ile River, and
so the water here is nearly fresh, unlike the brackish and saline
eastern section. The western section is wide, shallow, and usually
murkier than the eastern part as the wind and currents easily cause
sediments from the lake’s bottom to be suspended in the water. Fresh
water freezes more quickly than salty water and shallow lakes cool more
quickly than deep lakes, so it only makes sense that the western
portion of Lake Balkhash ices up more quickly than the saline and deep
eastern section.
Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 11/29/2021
Resolutions: 1km (149.1 KB), 500m (410.4 KB), 250m (249.4
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-12-06
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