 |
The Lena River, some 2,800 miles (4,400 kilometers) long, is one of the largest rivers in the world, supplying about 30 percent of the fresh water discharged into the Arctic Ocean. The Lena Delta Reserve in northern Russia is the country's most extensive protected wilderness area. It's an important refuge and breeding ground for many species of Siberian wildlife. This flase-color composite is a combination of red and infrared images from NASA's Landsat 7 satellite. Click here for a larger image from NASA's Visible Earth web site.
 |
Hoping to track global climate change in the world’s seventh-largest river system, students and professors form the Univsersity of South Carolina (USC) have gone on summer expeditions to the Lena River. The project is part of the National Science Foundation’s Arctic Freshwater Initiative. |
| During these expeditions, team members have analyzed water samples along the river's length. They also have extracted core samples from the delta and from the river's source at Lake Laptev. This information will help the scientists determine how water has flowed down the river in the past. |  |
Click here to view a history of Lena River discharge, NSF - funded publication by Janiel Rivera