Summer in the Northeastern U.S.

Credit: MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 06:06 CDT Download full size image

Summer has all but arrived in the northeastern United States, painting vegetation in deep green, keeping the skies mostly clear of clouds, and bringing the warm temperatures that send millions of Americans flocking to the beaches every weekend. In this true-color Terra MODIS image, the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine are almost entirely free of clouds. A lone red dot in southeastern New Hampshire marks a location where the MODIS instrument detected a heat signature - likely to be a fire, though whether it is agricultural or otherwise isn't clear. The lack of a smoke signature and its relatively small size suggest that it is actually agricultural, but ground data would be necessary to say for sure.

Three major bodies of water are visible in this image. At upper left, Lake Erie juts into the image from the western edge, while Lake Ontario runs diagonally across the corner from left to top edge. These two lakes are the two smallest of the Great Lakes. At lower right, the Atlantic Ocean dominates the scene with its deep sapphire color and suggestion of silver sunglint (i.e., glare) at the bottom right corner. At the peak of summer, Atlantic shoreline temperatures in the Maryland area can reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit (about 21 degrees Celsius).

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