File:Autumn Along the Appalachians (MODIS 2021-10-21).jpg

English: The glorious tints of autumn were beginning to color the Appalachian Mountains and the East Coast of the United States in mid-October 2021. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the scene on October 19.

Each fall, oranges, reds, and yellows color the deciduous forests of North America, sweeping first across the northern tier and highest elevations where temperatures are cooler. Colors in the high Appalachians tend to peak mid-October, then the lower elevations begin to glow by early November.

This year, many Eastern locations are reporting low or late color brought about by warm temperatures and uneven rainfall. However, the early autumnal glow is clearly visible in this scene, especially along the folds of the Appalachians and the shore of Lake Erie. Farmland in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia also wears the tan and golden autumn colors typical of end-of-season crops.

Gray pixels, which resemble spider webs arranged in a long row, crawl northward east of the mountains. These are man-made structures along the I-95 corridor. The web-like sprawl is created by cities, such as (from south to north) Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

NASA’s Worldview App allows comparison of MODIS imagery acquired of the same area on different days. A roll-over comparison Terra MODIS images acquired on October 19 and June 16, 2021, is available here.