The Lake Chany complex, located in southwestern Siberia, consists of large shallow lakes with an average depth of about 2.2 m. The area of the lake fluctuates with the water level, which is closely related to the amount of inflow and evaporation, as the lake complex is endorheic. Using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite images of the ice-free periods from 1999 to 2004, we evaluated the seasonal changes in the lake area and surrounding vegetation of the Lake Chany complex. The maximum lake area was observed in early May and decreased until late July. The lake area in August was about 60% of the maximum. Subsequently, the area tended to increase until early October. Compared to ground-truth data, the areas undergoing seasonal fluctuations in the NOAA images corresponded to vast stands of vegetation (Phragmites australis) that were several kilometers wide. These areas seem to be influenced by the inflow of snowmelt water and reed growth. Although interannual differences in the seasonal change in lake area were not great for the whole lake complex, the isolated Yudinskii Pool showed large interannual differences during summer and autumn, suggesting that monitoring this area using NOAA images will be useful for estimating the interannual fluctuations in the southwestern Siberian environment.
In Far East Russia, the Sea of Okhotsk is covered by sea ice in winter every year. The Amur River plays the important role of generating sea ice. Sea ice goes south by the monsoon. We have developed four-dimensional histogram method for sea ice detection using NOAA AVHRR images. The data in February to March is used among for five years from 1995 to 1999. The data of 179 scenes is used among 699 scenes to create four-dimensional histogram. We applied the four-dimensional histogram to detect sea ice of the Sakhalin area. As a result of applying the presented method, thick ice was undetectable although thin ice was detectable. Since thin ice is generated by the continental area along the shore, it is effective in observation of this area. Moreover, in the detection result, clouds and sea ice were distinguishable.Furthermore, when comparison with the detection result by the oceanography researcher was performed, the domain detected by this method was in agreement with the detection result by the researcher. This is the next subject although it is necessary to increase the number of scenes in order to detect thick ice.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.