Pictures Of Snow | Universe Today

Written by Fraser Cain

Here are some cool pictures of snow, taken from space!

In the winter of 2002-2003, the East Coast of the United States received an unusually large snowfall, blanketing the whole region in white stuff. You can see how the melting snow put darker sediments into the ocean surrounding the coast.

Here's a picture of snow covering southern Norway and central Sweden. This photo was taken by NASA's Terra Satellite, using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS).

Tokyo, Japan doesn't usually see much snow. But this satellite photo of Tokyo shows the city covered with snow during a storm that hit in January, 2006. Enough snow fell at Narita airport that thousands of airline passengers were stranded until it could all be cleaned up.

Here's a photo of Lake Tahoe, in the US, a region well known for having excellent snow. Some of the best ski resorts in the United States are located in this region, so it's no surprise to see it covered in snow.

Here's a photo of the North America from space. You can see the clouds formed over the Great Lakes region, where dry air picks up moisture as it crosses the lakes. You can see the band of snowfall across the entire continent.

This is a picture of Kilimanjaro in Africa, one of the few places on the continent where you can see snow. But you've got to hurry. As you can see in this picture, the amount of snow has declined since the 1990s, and there won't be snow atop this mountain for much longer.

We've written many articles about snow for Universe Today. Here's an article about snow on Mars, and here's a story about a record setting snowfall in the US seen from space.

If you'd like more info on Earth, check out NASA's World Book on Earth. And here's a link to NASA's Earth Observatory.

We've also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about planet Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

Filed under: Astronomy