China, Russia, Japan - October 8th, 2011
Smoke from wildfires hangs over the China-Russia border and extends out over the Sea of Japan. Air currents cause the smoke to take on a spiral shape west of the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Although the smoke reaches Japan, it does not appear to reach the Russian island of Sakhalin (above). The smoke is densest over Russia in the upper left corner of the image.
Japan - August 28th, 2011
Sakhalin is a large island in the North Pacific, stretching from the center to the top center of this image. It is part of Russia, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast.
Sakhalin is the largest island in Russia, at 948 km (589 miles) long, and 25 to 170 km (16 to 106 mi) wide, with an area of 72,492 km2 (27,989 sq mi).
Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the narrow and shallow Mamiya Strait or Strait of Tartary, which often freezes in winter in its narrower part, and from Hokkaidō, Japan by the Soya Strait or Strait of La Pérouse.
Nearly two-thirds of Sakhalin is mountainous. Two parallel ranges of mountains traverse it from north to south, reaching 600–1500 m (2000–5000 ft).
Russia and Japan - July 26th, 2011
This FAPAR image shows the vegetation index of Japan’s Hokkaido island (right), part of the eastern coast of Russia (left) and the southern section of Russia’s Sakhalin island (above center).
The vegetation index ranges mostly from good (green) to high (rusty red). It is highest along the shoreline of the Russian mainland and further inland to the west (visible in the full image), where as very large area of high activity can be observed.
Russia and Japan - September 9th, 2010
The main body of land on the left belongs to Russia, as does the section of Sakhalin Island extending downward from the top center. The island below is Hokkaido, belong to Japan. A small portion of Japan’s main island, Honshu, is visible just below Honshu, at the very bottom.
The wide river carrying dark brown sediments on the Russian mainland is the Amur. The main rivers on Sakhalin island are the Tym and the Poronai. The latter flows south-south-east to the Gulf of Patience or Shichiro Bay, on the south-east coast.
In the full image, a reddish brown lake can be seen near the mouth of the Poronai and the shores of the gulf. Further down, three other small streams enter the wide semicircular Gulf of Aniva or Higashifushimi Bay at the southern extremity of the island.
Strait of Tartary - March 4th, 2009
Ice is visible floating on the surface of the Sea of Okhotsk, along the eastern shore of Russia’s Sakhalin island, and the Gulf of Patience, the island’s southeastern coast.
The ice has a rippled or swirled appearance because it takes on the shape of eddy-currents moving beneath it.
Some ice can also be seen on the western side of Sakhalin, in the Strait of Tartary. However, much of this appears to have melted since the last time the area was observed (click here for article).
La Pérouse Strait, the body of water dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō (bottom right), is also ice-free, as is mainland Russia (left).
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