Lake Poyang in China captured by Planet LEO satellite, is just a quarter of its normal size caused by extreme drought in August 2022.

Lake Poyang in China captured by Planet Labs LEO satellite, is just a quarter of its normal size caused by extreme drought in August 2022.

Poyang Lake, Situated in northern Jiangxi, is China’s largest freshwater lake, typically covers more than 3,500 square kms and is a major water source for rice crops in Northwest China. The Lake is part of the Poyang Nature Reserve and is a UNESCO Heritage site since 1996. In the extreme drought in August 2022, it’s only about a quarter of its size and has farmers digging for water.

The shrinking water levels can even be seen from space, using LEO satellites for Earth Observation. This picture was captured by one of the LEO satellites from satellite operator Planet. Analysis of satellite imagery show a significant impact to freshwater ecosystems around the globe.

Planet Labs is an Earth Imaging company based in San Francisco, USA. The company has built and successfully deployed 450 satellites and is operating 200+ in orbit collecting over 350 million sq. km of imaginary data. In addition to California, Planet has offices in Germany and Canada where they deliver market-leading geospatial imagery to a global network of customers and partners in over 100 countries.

Planet currently operates three constellations, SkySat, with 21 satellites, RapidEYE and Doves. The satellites that comprise each constellation have unique spatial, temporal, and radiometric resolutions, to capture Earth’s activities from multiple perspectives and dimensions.

The SkySat satellites, built by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) aka Maxar, were originally operated by SkyBox Imaging, that was acquired by Google in 2014. In 2016 Skybox Imaging changed name in Terra Bella that was purchased by Planet in April 2017 with Google as a shareholder in Planet as part of that deal.