ISS031-E-148455 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
From space, astronauts documented the first lake—the easternmost one—in 1998. The lakes grew progressively as water flowed further west into each depression, with the westernmost basin filling between 2000 and 2001. The two astronaut photographs above, both taken from the International Space Station, indicate that the lakes were largely depleted by mid-2012, whereas water levels were at their highest in 2002. For scale, the lakes extended 110 kilometers from west to east in 2002.
The more recent image shows lines of center-pivot agricultural fields near the east basin (upper image), which is nearest to Lake Nasser. Sunglint on the western lake makes the water surface appear both light and dark, depending on which parts of the surface were ruffled by the wind at the moment the image was taken.
