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Landsat image
High resolution TIFF |
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ASTER image
High resolution TIFF |
Dense green vegetation gives way to pale fields in these satellite images
of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.
The image on the left, from the Landsat Thematic Mapper in 1992, shows the
beginning of agricultural development in a region of the southwestern
state of Mato Grosso. On the right is an image of the same area in 2006
from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Radiometer (ASTER)
instrument flying on NASA's Terra satellite.
In 1992, about 25 percent of the region shown had been clear-cut for
pastures and farms, mostly in the southern part of the area. Less than two
decades later, more than 80 percent of the rainforest had been cut down.
Figures released by Brazil's National Institute of Space Research, which
uses satellite observations to monitor the country's rainforest, show that
since 1988, when 21,000 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared, the
average deforestation rate has been about 19,000 square kilometers per
year.
In 2006, the Brazilian government announced that the annual rate of
deforestation in the country had dramatically declined. But, earlier this
year, it reported an unprecedented sharp rise in forest destruction,
naming Mato Grosso as one of the regions hardest hit. Rising prices for
commodities such as soybeans, of which Mato Grosso is already a major
producer, may be helping spur the land clearing.
The ASTER image was acquired July 28, 2006, and covers an area about 15 by
45 kilometers (about 9 by 28 miles) located near 9.7 degrees south
latitude and 55.2 west longitude.
The ASTER instrument, provided by Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and
Industry, is designed to obtain high-resolution global, regional and local
images of Earth in 14 color bands.
The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission
Directorate.
More information about ASTER is available at http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/.
