September 16, 2020 - Sediment in the Strait of Tartary

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   Sediment in the Strait of Tartary
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   Swirls of brown sediment stained the blue waters of the Strait of
   Tartary in mid-September 2020. The Moderate Resolution Imaging
   Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a
   true-color image of the scene on September 12.

   The Strait of Tartary (Tartar Strait) sits between the eastern Russian
   mainland and Sakhalin Island, connecting the Sea of Okhotsk (north)
   from the Sea of Japan (south). At the narrowest point, the Strait is a
   mere 4.5 mi (7 km) wide but it still provides an important shipping
   lane and in the wider stretches, harbors several important Russian
   seaports. It is typically clogged with ice between mid-November and
   mid-May.

   The Strait receives fresh water from the Amur River, the world’s
   tenth-longest river. The Amur rises in Mongolia, then flows east along
   the Chinese-Russian border before turning northeast and ultimately
   emptying into the Strait of Tartary. As it passes mountains, steppe,
   agricultural land, and towns, the Amur collects sediment. When the flow
   of the river is strong, the sediment can be carried thousands of miles
   only to be spilled into the Strait of Tartary. According to a study
   published in Marine Physics in 2017, the spreading of the sediment
   plume into the Strait of Tartary typically takes place only during the
   Amur’s freshet periods (times of high water flows, typically during ice
   melt), and when there is strong western wind forcing, which induces
   southward transport. The study states, “The average duration of this
   process during the ice-free season is estimated as 15 days; however, in
   individual years, it can be as short as several days”.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 9/12/2020
   Resolutions:  1km (46.7 KB),  500m (161.7 KB),  250m (477.5
   KB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2020-09-16
 
