Right on the edge of the world's largest, driest desert - the Sahara - lies a large freshwater lake. Lake Chad borders four countries in West Africa: Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Lake Chad was once the sixth-largest lake in the world (the second largest wetland in Africa, highly productive, and supporting a diversity of wildlife), but persistent drought since the 1960s shrank it to about a tenth its former size. You can see these lush wetland areas (bright red in the Landsat images) ringing the lake in 1973, and especially in 1987 as vegetation had replaced open water.

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