April 6, 2021 - Ephemeral Lake Mackay

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   Lake MacKay
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   Straddling the border between Australia’s Northern Territory and
   Western Australia, and surrounded by the red soils of the Central
   Desert region, ephemeral Lake Mackay owns the title of the
   fourth-largest lake in Australia. As a highly saline lake, the surface
   is encrusted with salt during the frequent dry spells and it supports
   little vegetation except on a few islands and surrounding clay pans.
   Lake Mackay is dotted with numerous islands while the surrounding sandy
   plains hold freshwater swamps and pans, all of which creates a complex
   and intricate ecosystem.

   Like many of the ephemeral lakes that are sprinkled across the
   landscape of northern and western Australia, Lake Mackay infrequently
   fills through seasonal rainfall that runs off nearby lands and seeps
   into the lake through small drainage channels. When water comes to Lake
   Mackay, so do a variety of shorebirds and water birds such as Banded
   Stilts, Red-necked Avocet, and Australian Bustard. The lake is listed
   as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by Birdlife International.

   On April 1, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
   (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a stunning true-color
   image of Lake Mackay surrounded by red soils. White salt encrusts the
   edges of the lake while green-tinted water fills much of the basin,
   especially in the Western Australia portion. Parts of Queensland and
   New South Wales experienced extremely heavy rains and flooding in the
   late March. While those torrential rains did not directly affect Lake
   Mackay or the desert, smaller amounts fell locally and have accumulated
   in the ephemeral lake. Once flooded, Lake Mackay tends to dry
   slowly—seasonal rainwater may linger for as long as six months.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 4/1/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (113 KB),  500m (284.2 KB),  250m (165.5 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=2021-04-06
 
