December 19, 2022 - North Caspian Ice-up

Ice on the Caspian Sea
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On December 16, 2022, winter ice-up of the North Caspian Sea was nearly
completed, thanks to rapidly falling temperatures in the closing days
of autumn.

This pair of true-color images captured by the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite only
fifteen days apart illustrates the fast-forming ice. The upper image,
acquired on December 16, reveals the entire area almost entirely
ice-covered, with only small windows of open water visible. The lower
image, acquired on December 1, shows only a thin layer of ice floating
near the white mineral-encrusted shoreline.

The Caspian Sea, with a total surface area spanning about 143,200
square miles (371,000 square kilometers), is considered to be Earth’s
largest inland water body. There are three distinct sections of the
Caspian Sea, and, despite cold, harsh winter temperatures across much
of the region, only the extremely shallow North Caspian freezes over.
The Middle Caspian transitions from the 4-5 meters (20 feet) depth of
the North to about 190 meters (620 feet) before it reaches the South
Caspian, where depths plunge to about 1,000 meters (3,300 feet).

Life in the north has adapted to harsh winter temperatures and the
thick layer of ice that forms by January and stays until March. While
commercial fishery, shipping, and oil production continues in the
open-water regions, it’s here, in the frozen North, where seals come to
raise their pups on the winter’s ice.

The Caspian seal is the smallest of the eared seals and the only marine
mammal found in the Caspian Sea. It has listed as Endangered by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2008. In
the 1930s, the seals were so numerous that many thousands were
harvested each year, primarily for blubber and for the soft white fur
of the pups. The current exact population is unknown, but best
estimates are that about 70,000 remain. While active hunting has
stopped, the seal population is still gravely at risk from many
dangers, including fishing operations, diseases such as highly-fatal
canine distemper, invasive jellyfish, and pollution. On December 5,
approximately 2,500 dead Caspian seals washed up on the coastline of
the Republic of Dagestan, Russia (located on the western coast and
south of this image). The cause is being investigated, but authorities
believe it to be “natural” and not from fishing or direct human
activity.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 12/16/2022
Resolutions: 1km (167 KB), 500m (469.5 KB), 250m (285.1 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-12-19

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