The ozone layer
Since the 70s, scientists found that the stratospheric ozone layer, responsible for protecting living organisms from harmful effects of UV rays, reduces visibly in depth but also horizontally, just above the frozen continent, Antarctica.
Since 1979, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) Ozone Monitoring Spectrometer register variations of this “hole” Ozone.
The maximum loss is reached in 2006, since the situation is stabilizing. Human activities are greatly responsible for this worrying state of ozone. The emission of chlorofluorocarbons from the years 30 destroyed much of the stratospheric layer.
Deforestation in the Amazon
These two images show the extent of deforestation in Amazonia, especially in the state of Rondonia in western Brazil. Within 10 years, numerous cases have literally invaded the rainforest of this region. Most of these huge scars are totally illegal.
Results in thirty years 208 000 km ² have disappeared, destroying the habitat of many species and depleting the soil passage. This corresponds to the size of the U.S. state of Kansas.
The timber trade but also the needs of plots for farming and urbanization have been due to tropical forest land. Americas Africa, Indonesia and Southeast Asia is literally stripped of their green lungs to meet the needs of a global population still growing.
The Aral Sea is dying
Unfortunately, it embodies the folly of man and especially the devastating effects of agricultural needs. The Fourth Sea world has borne the brunt of the deviation of two of its main tributaries in order to irrigate mostly cotton fields in the arid region of Central Asia.
Since the 60s, the Soviet Union uses this input of freshwater from the mountains to their crops. Result: 40 years later, a major ecological disaster is happening. The images (which began only in 2000) reveal the extent of damage. The Aral Sea will disappear, obliterating any civilization living around through fishing.
To try to salvage what little can be, Kazakhstan in 2005 built a dam between the northern and southern sea Objective: to save the Northern Aral Sea by the freshwater input via River Syrdar’ya. In one year, scientists have observed a significant increase in the level of water in this region.
The Antarctic ice
To see the magnitude of the impact of global warming on the ice of Antarctica, scientific missions have been launched with the radiograph of the frozen continent in September and February each year, the periods of maximum and minimum ice.
For 10 years, data collected show a significant stabilization of the ice sheet but if we look more closely, we find that certain areas of the frozen ocean is more or less affected by loss of ice. The Ross Sea (at the bottom of the image) and the Amundsen Sea (lower left) show a significant decrease in ice formation. Signs of global warming.
Lake Powell
Second largest artificial lake in the United States with its 300 km long, Lake Powell was built in the 60s through the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. Since 1963, the lake is filling slowly and can reach depths of 150 meters.
But in the early twenty-first century, a terrible drought hit the region causing a drop of 17 meters of water level of the lake. Images taken by NASA satellite Landsat 5 shows the north-east of the lake, at the crossroads of the dam and the Colorado River. There is indeed a significant decrease in water level between the two plates.
The marshes in Iraq
Long marshes in Iraq have been subject to retaliatory measures against dissident populations in Saddam Hussein’s regime. Many dams and canals draining the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in some regions near the Iran-Iraq border.
Sign the 2003 fall of the dictator’s reign. Iraqis destroy all the dams causing flooding in many marshes. Marshes found an ecosystem and a luxuriant vegetation for the survival of populations. In 2006, an environmental program of the United Nations indicates that 58% of the marshes have been restored.
Yet the image taken by the MODIS satellite in 2009 shows the drying of many wetlands, the consequences of a severe drought but also the construction of dams.
Melting ice
The same stands in the Arctic and the Antarctic. Since 2000, a battery of satellite observations can see variations in the extent and thickness of ice in September and March. For 10 years the amount of ice decreases more and more especially during the summer.
The Arctic has certainly cycles of natural fluctuations, but in this case, the greenhouse effect due to the emission of gases such as CO2 is directly responsible for the amplification and especially the increase of melting ice in this region.
Urbanization of Dubai
Images taken by the ASTER satellite speak for themselves. In less than ten years, this little corner of the UAE what Dubai has literally rebuilt his way to the coast along the Persian Gulf. To accommodate the many tourists but also investors and multimillionaires in the world, policymakers have not hesitated to undertake massive and create entire islands of the sea, like those palm islands home to luxury villas.
The red images represent the vegetation and the brown, sandy soil, gray and blue, structures and buildings, and finally dark blue sea
Distribution of the biosphere
The maps show the distribution of chlorophyll in the oceans of the world, and the density of vegetation on the continents.
The chlorophyll in the oceans is due to phytoplankton, tiny algae responsible for providing oxygen through photosynthesis. The concentration of these organisms is highest in cold water at the poles but also in areas of cold currents near the equator and along the coasts of continents. These currents from the depths, upwelling, bring nutrients to the surface necessary for the growth of micro-organisms such as algae. Within 10 years, changes in chlorophyll content of the oceans have changed little since the intake of nutrients, water, light and temperature have changed little over time.
This is not the case for the distribution of the continental vegetation. Some areas have seen great changes in water supply and temperature. This is the case of the Sahel, Australia, the steppes of Central Asia. Changing the settings directly affects plant growth.
Solar Cycles
The spacecraft Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) shows absolutely incredible images of the Sun in ultraviolet light. Its mission is to study the internal structure of the body heat of the atmosphere but also the origins of the solar wind …
An average solar cycle lasts 11 years but can vary between 8 and 15 years. These two pictures show the variations in solar activity. In 2000, several explosions occurred on the surface and even beyond the atmosphere as showers. It is they who are sources of solar wind. By cons in 2009, the sun came up in a wave of calm.
These activity changes are not without consequence for the Earth. During phases of explosions and intense magnetic activity, temperatures increase significantly on our planet. Conversely, during periods of very quiet solar, terrestrial temperatures tend to decrease.