Images & Animations
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Credit
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
With summits of 13,792 ft (4,205 m) and 13,674 ft (4,169 m), it's not unusual for the Mauna Kea (north) and Mauna Loa (south) volcanoes on Hawaii's Big Island to get wintertime snowfall. In this true-color MODIS image from February 28, 2002, a late winter snow has settled on the volcanoes' flanks, creating large white circles in the north and central portions of the island. The white patchy areas along the west coast are clouds, and not snow, which is more evident in the false color image, in which ice crystals on the ground appear solid red and clouds appear peach. Don't be fooled by the red outlines on the eastern coast. They aren't snow, but rather are used to mark locations where MODIS detected the thermal signature of the volcanoes in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The dark streaks and patches reveal the location of lava flows.
Metadata
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Sensor
Terra/MODIS -
Visualization Date
2002-02-28
