File:Snow and Cloud around Lake Superior (MODIS 2022-02-14).jpg

English: On February 3, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a stunning and unusual false-color image of a frigid winter scene across southern Ontario, Canada, and the northern United States, complete with dramatic clouds streaming across Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan.

In this type of false-color image, data from MODIS bands 3,6,7 is combined to help distinguish snow, ice, and clouds. Ice reflects more blue light than snow or ice clouds. Ice—on the ground or over frozen lakes—will be bright reddish-orange, while snow is orange, and clouds range from white to dark peach. Frozen Lake Nipigon, which sits just northeast of the shores of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada, appears radically different than the clouds over the lakes. The Lake’s bright color also stands out from the duller color of snow in the surrounding landscape—even though ice, snow, and cloud all appear white in reality (and in true-color satellite images). In the lower right (southeast) corner of the image, a swath of peach marks a different type of cloud than the bright white clouds that stream over the lakes. The peach color reveals ice crystals in these high, cold clouds. In contrast, the cloud streets found over the lakes are lower and warmer. With no ice present, they appear white.

The MODIS instrument collects data using 36 spectral bands, so scientists can make many combinations to help study the Earth. The most commonly published image is true-color, which uses bands 4,3,1 and gives a view very much like we could see with our own eyes if we were in space.

The NASA Worldview App makes it easy to see different band combinations. To view a comparison between this false-color image and the true-color image acquired at the same time, click here.