Aral Sea Album

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has an area of 371,000 square kilometers. Maximum depth is about 1025 meters. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2%, about a third of that of most seawater.

The Aral Sea is a landlocked sea in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan, in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to more than 1,000 islands of one hectare or more that dotted its waters. Since the 1960s the Aral Sea has been shrinking, as the rivers that feed it (the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya) were diverted by the then Soviet Union for irrigation. The Aral Sea is heavily polluted, largely as the result of weapons testing, industrial projects, and fertilizer runoff.
More images are available at this Russian language site.

The Caspian and Aral Seas.
13th September 2007
[Metop A Data © EUMETSAT 2007]
Processed with David Taylor's Metop Manager and HRPT Reader.

Aral Sea August 1964
© This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of 17 U.S.C. § 105.

Aral Sea - August 1985 from Space Shuttle.
© This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted".

Aral Sea, Meteosat 7,
14th September 2007.
The image has been rendered to show the extent of the dried up seabed in comparison to the remaining bodies of water.
MSG Data © EUMETSAT 2007.
Processed with David Taylor's MSG DataManager and GeoSatSignal.

The Aral Sea.
Metop A Data © EUMETSAT 2008.
23rd May 2008
Processed with David Taylor's MetopManager and HRPT Reader.

The Aral Sea. Comparison with previous years images shows continued contraction of open water.
Metop A Data © EUMETSAT 2009.
16th August 2009
Processed with David Taylor's Metop Manager & HRPT Reader.

The Aral Sea continues to shrink even in the last month. Compare this latest September 2009 image with August 2009 and May one year ago.
[Metop A Data © EUMETSAT 2009]
Processed with David Taylor's Metop Manager and HRPT Reader

NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response Terra/Modis
8th September 2009.