In the late 1980s, I went on an expedition along Kazakhstan's eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. One of our stops was supposed to be a fishing village, but when we got there, it was completely empty. Hundreds of mud huts sat abandoned as everyone had just disappeared. In one of the yards, a camel was still there. It felt haunting, like walking through a ghost town. The strangest part? There was no sea anywhere nearby! The Caspian had dried up so quickly that people had to leave their homes behind because they couldn’t live there anymore.
The Volga Hydroelectric Station, located on the Volga River, directly impacts the Caspian Sea. The Volga River, Europe’s longest, flows into the Caspian Sea and contributes about 80% of its freshwater inflow. The construction of the Volga Hydroelectric Station and other dams along the river has altered its natural flow, reducing the volume of water reaching the Caspian Sea. This reduction has contributed to the sea’s declining water levels.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150452/the-caspian-...
The issue of how the satellite data feed ends up censored is pretty interesting. Here's the probable central issue:
> "While countries still reserve the right to withhold map data, the number of state and private companies that sell satellite images makes hiding the globe incredibly difficult. At the same time, this also means that state or non-state actors can beat private companies to the exclusive rights of a satellite image, meaning they can partially censor the image before others can license it."
Oceans, plus I guess the Caspian Sea, don’t get much satellite coverage because no one (except militaries) wants it enough. For the ocean, Google Maps uses bathymetry data to synthesise shaded blue imagery. The Caspian in particular I guess is such a uniform colour either because it’s so shallow that Google’s shading algorithm doesn’t shade it at all? (Compare to the northwesternmost parts of the Adriatic Sea, for example)
Products like Google Maps stitch satellite and aerial photos together to make a cohesive image.
There's no reason to spend tens of thousands of dollars on getting precise images in the middle of a sea or ocean from Maxar so a low-res image is more than enough.
Also, most of the high-res images you see of regions on Google Earth or Maps tends to come from aerial photography, not satellites.
These products will also update the images every couple months to years. For example, you could see the aftermath of the Donetsk airport battle and Homs Siege in Google Maps in 2014-15, but not anymore.
Google Maps' satellite photography only extends a bit into seas, where it transitions to bathymetric data. It looks like the Caspian Sea doesn't have any bathymetric data though, which is strange. Even the great lakes have it.
You can get walking directions, it’s about 9.5km end-to-end along the furthest connected points. Looks like the roads going further out have collapsed.
Readit News
Caspian sea is rather stable.
https://geographical.co.uk/science-environment/the-caspian-s...
https://as2.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/01/99/42/41/1000_F_199424123_E5...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samotlor_Field?useskin=vector
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nq28Ct4FLyBGx5eP8
It was deemed too strategically important and was not put on maps.
What's up with that?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dr71WrLZ7G97E5br9?g_st=ic
> "While countries still reserve the right to withhold map data, the number of state and private companies that sell satellite images makes hiding the globe incredibly difficult. At the same time, this also means that state or non-state actors can beat private companies to the exclusive rights of a satellite image, meaning they can partially censor the image before others can license it."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-21/why-large-parts-of-ea...
There's no reason to spend tens of thousands of dollars on getting precise images in the middle of a sea or ocean from Maxar so a low-res image is more than enough.
Also, most of the high-res images you see of regions on Google Earth or Maps tends to come from aerial photography, not satellites.
These products will also update the images every couple months to years. For example, you could see the aftermath of the Donetsk airport battle and Homs Siege in Google Maps in 2014-15, but not anymore.
https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/?zoom=13&lat=40.2387...
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Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neft_Da%C5%9Flar%C4%B1
(Only Yandex seems to have imagery, the other services cut it out as it's too far offshore.)
https://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/53_folder/53_...
Because it was in glorius SovColor and because the hero had greasy ElvisPresley-pompadour, I would say it was shot in between 1960-1970.
There's a painting in colour, however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_Baku_Commissars#/media/File...
Lagniappe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic...
EDIT: wrong geography, but apparently the "technical" long predates the Toyota Hilux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9fbO9NX1no#t=3553s
Bing Maps shows the bridges and some platforms with good resolution: https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=40.061519%7E49.607735&lvl=12.0&...
Yandex Maps shows the constellation of isolated platforms to the south-east: https://yandex.com/maps/?l=sat%2Cskl&ll=49.630795%2C40.03939...
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