Using an expert computer system to parse through over three million satellite photos , scientist have compile a high resolution mapping of the Earth that ’s offering an unprecedented glimpse into how our planet ’s Earth’s surface water has changed over the past three decades .
This Modern mapping effort was led by Jean - François Pekel from the European Commission ’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra , Italy . Recorded at a resolution of 100 x 100 feet ( 30 x 30 meters ) , the new maps show the planet ’s water surfaces ( excluding ocean ) in astonishing detail . What ’s more , it tracks change in lineament like river , lakes , and wetlands over the track of 30 year . Using these maps , scientist can now study how airfoil waters are changing over metre , and how human activities are reshaping the planet .
early attempts to represent our major planet ’s surface weewee lacked the required resolution . They were too fuzzy to discern small lake and rivers — a Brobdingnagian restriction impart that millions of lakes less than one satisfying kilometre in size news report for roughly 40 per centum of the global area of inland water . Previous planet resume , the best of which featured a resolution of 820 x 820 feet ( 250 x 250 meters ) , made it hard for geologist to discern surface water from ground ; the color of water varies greatly depend on depth , comportment of sediments and dissolved chemical , and the angle at which the sunlight hits the Earth’s surface .
For the new resume , Pekel ’s squad sought to create a unfeignedly global and methodologically logical measure of changes in airfoil water over prison term . Indeed , our major planet ’s body of water surfaces are constantly shifting , owing to natural mental process like implosion therapy , sedimentation , and canal migration , and due to human activities like the structure of dekametre , reservoirs , and water extraction .
To say this was a punctilious survey would be a gross understatement . The researchers analyse 3,066,102 Landsat images learn at monthly intervals between 1984 and 2015 . To manage all this data—1.8 terabytes to be exact — and to mark terrestrial land features from water , the researchers utilized an expert computer organization and the processing magnate of the Google Earth Engine program .
Using this system , the researchers were able to classify each picture element ( representing a 100 x 100 foot pulley block ) of each image as being either water , state , or a non - valid observation . The leave 32 - year record of our planet ’s water account was then used to produce a set of sortable maps that document unlike facets of open water system dynamic .
These single-valued function have revealed some enchanting change over a relatively short period of time . Collectively , lasting Earth’s surface body of water has disappeared from an expanse quantify almost 35,000 substantial nautical mile ( 90,000 square kilometer ) since 1984 — more or less equivalent to Lake Superior . Around 70 percent of surface water losses occurred in just five Middle easterly countries , Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Iran , Iraq , and Afghanistan . This instance the terrible piss management challenge in this region , let in drouth .
Over the same time period , new permanent surface water feature mold elsewhere , cover an area about double that from which H2O was lost , or 71,000 square mile ( 184,000 straightforward km ) . Most new water features were associated with reservoir construction , but the impact of climate change was also detected .
“ In some places , like the Tibetan tableland … a cause and effect kinship with climate can be unambiguously established , ” Pekel told Gizmodo . “ Basically , the observed enlargement of the [ unsympathetic ] lakes of the Tibetan Plateau , is a event of the accelerated snow - and - glacier melting because of rising temperature and increase rainfall . ”
In sum , the new data shows that our major planet , as of 2011 , is covered with 1.08 million square miles ( 2.78 square km ) of permanent surface weewee , and 0.31 million straight miles ( 0.81 million square km ) of seasonal surface body of water . Armed with these maps , geologist and climate scientist will be better equip to assess the impact of global thawing , while also capturing the effects of human body process on surface water resource distribution .
[ Nature ]
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