Stratus clouds are common in the Arctic during the summer months, and are
important modulators of the arctic climate. This image pair from the
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) was acquired on August 23, 2000,
and shows a region of stratified clouds situated near the boundary of the
permanent polar ice pack to the north of the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas.
At top is a natural-color view captured by MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir)
camera. At bottom, a stereo anaglyph enables observation of multiple cloud
layers.
The images are centered at about 75 degrees north latitude, near the
international dateline. These high-latitude data were acquired during the
"ascending node" of the Terra orbit, that is, the portion of the orbit where
the spacecraft is flying from south to north. The images have been rotated 90
degrees counterclockwise to facilitate stereo viewing, thereby orienting them
with south toward the left and north toward the right. Solar illumination is
very oblique, and sunlight is coming from the right-hand side of the images.
Viewing the anaglyph in 3D requires the use of red-blue glasses, with the red
filter placed over your left eye. Information on ordering glasses can be
found at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/Help/VendorList.html#Glasses .
Dark ocean waters and ice floes can be observed through several translucent
clouds in the left-hand portion of the nadir image. These clouds are no
longer translucent in the anaglyph image, which was created using data from
MISR's two most obliquely forward-viewing cameras. The cold, stable air
causes the clouds to persist in stratified layers, and this layering is
evident in the stereo view. Near the top center, a high-altitude cloud
formation is illuminated by the Sun and casts long shadows on the underlying
cloud deck.
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth
continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north
and 82 degrees south latitude. These images were generated from a portion of
the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 3626. The data have been resampled to
a resolution of 350 meters per pixel, and cover an area of about 533 kilometers
x 626 kilometers. They utilize data from blocks 8 to 12 within
World Reference System-2 path 176.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.
Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Acro Service Corporation/Jet Propulsion
Laboratory), David J. Diner (Jet Propulsion Laboratory).
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