Picture From Space Captures Multicoloured Lake Alakol In Kazakhstan
Now, thanks to high-resolution images captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite, the world is beginning to witness the lake's mesmerising, ever-shifting palette from space – unveiling a spectacle that changes with the seasons.
Lake Alakol holds a special place in Central Asia's geography. While the lake spans around 1,000 square miles, its most distinctive feature is its isolation from the sea. Fed by the Urzhar and Emil rivers, the lake is completely cut off from any ocean, creating an enclosed system.
Anything that flows in stays there until the sun evaporates it, leaving minerals and salts behind. This continuous cycle has increased the salinity of the water, which is now high enough to repel freshwater fish, yet mild enough for daring swimmers.
The lake typically freezes over for two months at the end of winter before breaking apart in early spring, leaving floating fragments that gleam like shattered glass. The size of its surface varies from year to year. The shoreline may extend several hundred yards in response to a rainy spring, but it retracts after three consecutive dry summers.
These fluctuations affect the salt content and the algae that give the water its turquoise or rust-red colour. The term "the water's mood" is often used to describe this chameleon-like quality.
European Space Agency scientists can now observe these colour shifts from above using Sentinel-1 radar.
In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, Lake Alakol is an important biological habitat, home to several rare bird species. In recognition of its ecological significance, the lake was included in UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in 2013. It was also added to the global list of protected wetlands by Ramsar, an international convention for the conservation of wetlands.
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