Between 2019 and 2020, water levels went from barely there to the highest on record.
Poyang Lake—China’s largest freshwater lake—routinely fluctuates in size between the winter and summer seasons. Between 2019 and 2020, however, water levels went from barely there to the highest on record.
These images, acquired with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, show the lake at its recent extreme low and high levels. The images are false color, using a combination of infrared and visible light (MODIS bands 7-2-1). Water appears black and navy blue; vegetation is bright green; clouds are white or cyan. This band combination makes it easier to see the boundary between water and land.
The left image was acquired on December 8, 2019. Winter is a dry time of year in eastern China, and the lake typically shrinks considerably. Pools of water mixed with patches of grass form important wetland habitat for migrating birds. But the yearly low water levels have been trending even lower, and in December 2019 they were the lowest in 60 years.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
