Shuttle-Mir Program Earth Science Early Results

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Water Features and Water Issues: Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is one of the prime global monitoring sites for the NASA-Mir Earth Science program. Heavy agriculture in the otherwise arid regions (primarily Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) within the Aral Sea watershed has diverted almost all of the water coming into the lake along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Over the past few decades, the level of the Aral Sea has dropped dramatically, and as a result of the lowered water levels, the salinity of the water has soared. Water rights and water usage are controversial topics in this region.      This set of images documents the current water levels around the lake. We also include imagery of the cultivated land along the Amu Darya, showing the network of irrigation canals, the distribution of crops, and the extent that water seeps outward from the croplands into the surrounding desert.

NM21-762-025A Photograph of the whole of the Aral Sea, showing the 1996 shoreline. Compare this with 51F-36-0059 (a 1985 view).
	51F-3G-0059 Aral Sea (south-looking view) in 1985. Compare the shape of the lake and the islands in the lake in this view with the 1996 views. Today, lower water levels have completely separated the northern basin the Aral Sea from the main body.

NM21-727-022 Amu Darya agriculture, spring 1996. Reservoirs on the lower Amu Darya, just south of the delta into the Aral Sea. The reservoir, created to support the irrigation canals, is muddy from the spring run-off. Compare this early spring view of the crops (primarily cotton) with the summer view, NM22-708-042.
	NM22-708-042 Agriculture along the Amu Darya River, August, 1996. This summer view shows the extensive cultivation which is supported by the Amu Darya. Sometimes the water intended for irrigation seeps outward into the surrounding desert; note the small lakes filling the low spots between dunes at the bottom of the image. Poor water management practices compound the water issues in this region.

NM21-704-062 Aral Sea The Aral Sea sits in the basin adjacent to the Caspian Sea in central Asia. Unlike the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea levels have been dramatically dropping for several decades. The primary cause in the Aral Sea level drop is the progressive diversion of the in-flowing waters of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers to support a substantial agriculture business. This west-looking view encompasses the whole Aral Sea, and is the most recent of a series of images documenting the declining water levels.

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