Given the significant use of satellite data, I imagine the start point was chosen based on when some classes of data became available from recently launched sat

Given the significant use of satellite data, I imagine the start point was chosen based on when some classes of data became available from recently launched satellites. An earlier time may not have sufficiently comparable data. There's a map linked in the paper if you want to see where the lakes are: https://www.science.org/cms/10.1126/science.abo2812/asset/abd57b01-78de-495f-8de1-6b3e378a2512/assets/images/large/science.abo2812-f1.jpg https://www.science.org/cms/10.1126/science.abo2812/asset/ab...