Ice cover surpassed 80 percent for the first time in 20 years.
Published Feb 21, 2014
This lake in northwest Russia is small compared to Lake Baikal, yet it still manages to make a stately appearance in satellite imagery.
Published Apr 4, 2020
Just a few months after an unusually warm winter with minimal ice, the surface temperatures of the lakes are now near or above records.
Published Jul 16, 2020
When it comes to the blue hue of meltwater lakes, darker means deeper; satellites can help scientists discover just how deep.
Published Sep 9, 2015
Lake Erie is usually the first to freeze over because it is shallower than the other Great Lakes.
Published Feb 18, 2018Image of the Day Atmosphere Temperature Extremes Sea and Lake Ice
Snow cover lingered in the Great Lakes region on February 16, 2008. Against the backdrop of snowy ground appear the deep blue waters of the Great Lakes and nearby water bodies. In this wintertime shot, the lakes are relatively ice-free, except for Lake Erie.
Published Feb 20, 2008
The spring thaw is underway in the Great Lakes region of North America.
Published Mar 27, 2019
Acquired September 2, 2000, this natural-color image shows the area around Liverpool Bay in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Published Aug 21, 2011
Nearly 90 percent of the lake was ice-covered on January 9, 2014.
Published Jan 15, 2014
Lake Erie’s shallowness not only makes it more prone to fluctuating water levels, but also enables this lake to freeze and thaw more readily than its neighbors.
Published Mar 16, 2007
Pingualuit Crater holds a lake about 267 meters (876 feet) deep. Because this lake has no connection to any other water body, inflows from other lakes cannot contaminate Pingualuit’s sediments.
Published Feb 10, 2008
The alpine lakes of the Tibetan Plateau are some of the most remote in the world. This mosaic of astronaut photographs, taken along a single International Space Station orbit track, depicts Lake Puma Yumco during the winter season. The lake is located at an elevation of 5,030 meters above sea level (16,503 feet), and is considered ultraoligotrophic, meaning that nutrient concentrations in both the water column and lake sediments are extremely low. Water in such lakes tends to be blue to blue-green and to have high clarity due to low levels of photosynthesizing organisms such as phytoplankton. Color change in these lakes is usually due to shallowing of the water—blue indicating deeper water. A depth transition is visible along the west-southwest shoreline of Lake Puma Yumco at the lower left of image. The most striking feature of the image mosaic, however, is the intricate ice block pattern on the lake surface.
Published Feb 27, 2006
Acquired June 15, 2009, this natural-color image shows Omulyakhskaya and Khromskaya Bays along the coast of Northern Siberia.
Published Aug 14, 2011
Ice cover on the world’s largest freshwater lake remains significantly above average for mid-April.
Published Apr 24, 2014
The break up of lake ice in springtime unveils the turquoise waters of one of Asia’s largest lakes.
Published Apr 17, 2019
Some 400 million years ago, a meteor struck Earth in what is now Canada’s Northwest Territories. The 12.5-kilometer- (7.8-mile-) wide crater is now Nicholson Lake, one of many small lakes that dot the sub-arctic, glacier-scoured landscape.
Published Mar 23, 2008
Synthetic Aperture Radar is offering scientists a new way to measure how much of the potent greenhouse gas is bubbling up from frozen Arctic lakes.
Published Jul 14, 2020
Warm air prevailed in the 2019-2020 winter season, preventing much ice from forming on the lakes.
Published Feb 20, 2020
Summer beachgoers and fishers have been getting a wintery surprise on Lake Superior.
Published Jun 12, 2014
North America’s largest northward flowing river gets its start at Great Slave Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Published Nov 28, 2015
Two of the largest freshwater lakes in Turkey sit on the Anatolia Plateau.
Published Jan 26, 2020
