The Pacific Northwest

Mountains and valleys are strikingly detailed by a covering of snow in this true-color Terra MODIS image of the North American Pacific Northwest. The Canadian provinces of British Columbia (top center) and Alberta (top right) are almost completely snow-covered, which allows a number of lakes and inlets to show where otherwise they would be difficult to distinguish. The inlets on British Columbia's coast, across from Vancouver Island, stretch quite far inland, rivaling the renowned fjords of Sweden. The lakes, which sit in the numerous valleys created by the many separate ranges that make up the northern Rocky Mountains, show up as thin ribbons of black against the snowy land.

On the US side of the border, the snows skirt the Pacific coast, southeastern Washington, and north central Oregon. A lonely, roughly circular spot of snow tops the Olympic Mountains east of Seattle (on the eastern bank of Puget Sound), while a slim stretch of snow follows the Cascade Mountains south. In the bottom right corner, snows highlight the stretch of the Blue Mountains eastward toward Idaho´s Salmon River Mountains. This true-color image was acquired February 24, 2003.

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Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published February 27, 2003
Data acquired February 24 - 24, 2003

Source:

Terra > MODIS

Collection:

Visible Earth