Snow in northeastern United States

  • Credit

    Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this wintry scene on February 16, 2004. The image shows Ontario and Quebec, Canada, top left and center respectively, and the New England states of the United States. Far from obscuring the landscape, the snow highlights features that might not otherwise be visible. The Adirondock Mountains of northeastern New York (left of center) and the White and Longfellow Mountains of New Hampshire and Maine appear darker than the surrounding landscape. This is probably not because there is less snow in the mountains, but because the type of landcover is different. Evergreen trees in the highlands, for example, might appear darker than their deciduous counterparts in the lowlands. In contrast, smooth waterways and lakes are a brilliant white, covered in ice and snow.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS
  • Visualization Date

    2004-03-12