Sarobetsu Wetland, Hokkaido, Japan

The ASTER image shows Sarobetsu Wetland in "Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park" in Hokkaido, Japan. Now spontaneous regeneration is undergoing at this wetland.

The Sarobetsu natural flower garden (a business center having nature trails) is seen at the center of the image.
On the east of the garden, a high moor fog is extracted as dark green on the east of the garden, which is the largest high moor at flatland in Japan. (This image is a natural color image, showing different color from real visible ones.)
The light green seen on the west of the garden is interpreted as intrusion of bamboo green caused by wetland acidification.
In this image, the green color becomes lighter as vegetation activity rises, so poor nutrition area such as wetland is colored in dark tone.
You can find Penke-numa filled with sediment influx on the south of the garden.

A closed peat extraction site is seen as a black square in the high moor on the east of the garden.

(Go to the Ministry of the Environment' website (:Japanese only) at http://sarobetsu.env.gr.jp/index.html)