Images & Animations
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Credit
Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
Snow blankets south-central Russia (top) and northwestern Kazakhstan (bottom) in this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from November 13, 2002. The snow makes it easy to see the w-shaped bends in the Ob River, which travels thousands of kilometers from its origins in the mountains of the Altay region of Russia (bottom right), northeast across the Siberian Plain, and empties into Kara Sea, a southern branch of the Arctic Ocean. The dark greenish-blue lines running southward to the Kazakhstan border are wetland areas along tributaries; additional wetlands crouch in the bowls of the Ob’s “w”. Where the snow blankets northeastern Kazakhstan, it is easier to pick up the course of the Irtysh River, which flows northward and joins the Ob in the Siberian Plain.
The long, curving lake in Kazakhstan is called the Bukhtarminskoye Vodokhranilishche (bottom right), and connects to the Ozero Zaysan at the very bottom edge of the image.
Metadata
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Sensor
Terra/MODIS -
Visualization Date
2002-11-20
