Envisat captures Lake Chad

Envisat captures Lake Chad, a freshwater lake located in central Africa at the junction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. Lake Chad has shrunk dramatically over the last four decades due to a decrease in rainfall and an increase in the amount of water used for irrigation projects. Its surface area was 25 000 sq km in the early 1960s, compared with 1350 sq km in 2001. Image acquired 19 December 2007 by the MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) instrument aboard ESA’s Envisat satellite.