English: Spring brings rising temperatures across Central Asia and the rapid melting of winter’s snowpack. As the high elevation snow turns into water, the life-giving liquid refreshes the landscape, filling rivers and bringing a flush of green to the landscape.

On March 28, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of spring greening in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Scant snow remains on the peaks of Afghanistan’s Paropamisus Mountains while a wide swath of green covers a large area of at the edge of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan (northwest) as well as Afghanistan. In the upper left (northwest) corner of the image, a fan of lighter green can be seen. This is the Murgab Fan, a broad plain of the Murgab, a river that rises in the Paropamisus Mountains and carries water to this rich agricultural region. Despite the greening, the arid nature of the sandy desert still dominates the scene, as a cloud of dust crosses between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan just north of the bright green patch.

While this single image gives a clear view of a spring day in Central Asia, comparing two images of the same place taken on different days can give a much better insight of change over time. Thanks to the NASA Worldview App, this is simple to accomplish. To view a roll-over comparison between this Aqua MODIS image acquired on March 28 and one acquired in mid-winter (January 25) click here.