Heavy snowfall on March 12, 2004, across north China's Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region, Mongolia and Russia, caused train and highway traffic
to stop for several days along the Russia-China border. This pair of
images from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) highlights
the snow and surface properties across the region on March 13. The
left-hand image is a multi-spectral false-color view made from the
near-infrared, red, and green bands of MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir)
camera. The right-hand image is a multi-angle false-color view made from
the red band data of the 46-degree aftward camera, the nadir camera, and
the 46-degree forward camera.
About midway between the frozen expanse of China's Hulun Nur Lake (along
the right-hand edge of the images) and Russia's Torey Lakes (above image
center) is a dark linear feature that corresponds with the
China-Mongolia border. In the upper portion of the images, many small
plumes of black smoke rise from coal and wood fires and blow toward the
southeast over the frozen lakes and snow-covered grasslands. Along the
upper left-hand portion of the images, in Russia's Yablonovyy mountain
range and the Onon River Valley, the terrain becomes more hilly and
forested. In the nadir image, vegetation appears in shades of red, owing
to its high near-infrared reflectivity. In the multi-angle composite,
open-canopy forested areas are indicated by green hues. Since this is a
multi-angle composite, the green color arises not from the color of the
leaves but from the architecture of the surface cover. The green areas
appear brighter at the nadir angle than at the oblique angles because
more of the snow-covered surface in the gaps between the trees is
visible. Color variations in the multi-angle composite also indicate
angular reflectance properties for areas covered by snow and ice. The
light blue color of the frozen lakes is due to the increased forward
scattering of smooth ice, and light orange colors indicate rougher ice
or snow, which scatters more light in the backward direction.
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth
continuously and every 9 days views the entire Earth between 82 degrees
north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated
from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 22525. The
panels cover an area of about 355 kilometers x 380 kilometers, and
utilize data from blocks 50 to 52 within World Reference System-2 path
126.
MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.
Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS / Jet Propulsion Laboratory).
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