Novaya Zemlya, Northern Russia

  • Credit

    Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

The long crescent of Novaya Zemlya separates the Barents Sea, left, from the Kara Sea, right. Novaya Zemlya is actually two islands, Severny in the north and Yuzhny in the south. The islands are separated by a narrow channel of water, the Matochkin Strait, which is not visible in this image. Here, the water in the strait has frozen into white ice, blending with the snow that covers the islands. Located north of European Russia, Novaya Zemlya is a continuation of the Ural Mountains. In this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image, mountains wrinkle the otherwise smooth snow over the islands. MODIS on the Terra satellite captured this image on March 20, 2004. Sea ice covers the waters north and east of the islands. Thin black lines trace out the locations of open water channels in the ice.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Visualization Date

    2004-04-23