NASA Earth Observatory has delivered on spooky season with satellite images of ghosts ghost forests, that is, as seen from above North Carolina. The h

NASA Satellite Captures Haunting Growth of ‘Ghost Forests’ in North Carolina

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2024-10-31 17:00:05

NASA Earth Observatory has delivered on spooky season with satellite images of ghosts ghost forests, that is, as seen from above North Carolina.

The haunting images show the creeping spread of a ghost forest along a stretch of the coast in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The region is covered in bald cypress forests, but over the last two decades some of those trees have become even more bald. As in, they died. The trees lost their bark but remain standing, an eerie reminder of the life that existed not too long before.

Ghost forests occur when large groups of trees are killed, often by saltwater. That’s why many ghost forests are along the coasts, where trees that normally enjoy the freshwater environment of the wetlands can suffer influxes of saltwater, choking them out.

The images below were taken by NASA Landsats 5 and 9 in 2005 and 2024, showing a change in the shape of the forest over nearly 20 years. According to a NASA Earth Observatory release, about 11% of the land in the wildlife refuge became ghost forest between 1985 and 2019. From the air, the creep of the ghost forest’s growth resembled the edge of an avocado slowly going bad, as brown and black inches inland, replacing what was previously a verdant green.