Click on image for a larger view.
Click on image for a larger view.
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This image was acquired by the NOAA-14 satellite on 1997 Mar 9 at 19:17 UT (1:17 PM CST). It is a color composite using AVHRR channels 1, 2, and 4 as red, green, and blue. The blue channel has been inverted to make the clouds more white. The color is related to the temperature, white is cold, more yellow is warmer. So high cold clouds appear white or blue/white. Snow appears pale yellow where cold and somewaht deeper yellow where not as cold. The area covered includes much of North and South Dakota, western Minnesota, a bit of Nebraska, Iowa, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Clouds block the view in the northeast corner. Southern South Dakota is snow free, but toward the north the snow cover is quite deep (the Purdue snow cover map for Mar 10 says Grand Forks, ND has 31 inches on the ground). The Red River drains north along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. The cities of Fargo ND and Moorhead MN straddle the river on the border and may be seen as a gray patch at Latitude 46.9. A faint line is visible extending west from Fargo, this is interstate 94. Other visible cities along I-94 include Valley City, Jamestown, and Bismarck. Just west of the border I-29 is seen extending north from Fargo. Many other cities are visible as dark spots scattered over this image, especially in northeastern South Dakota. Also many smaller towns are seen as fainter spots. The grid of smaller roads is nearly visible, more sensed than clearly seen in this image. But an image using the visible channel has been contrast stretched to better show the faint smaller road system. A road atlas may be used to locate even some of the smallest towns. On the North Dakota/Canadian border a darker oval shaped patch is visible, this is the Turtle Mountains. It is not dark due to lack of snow but because it is tree covered. The dark areas in Minnesota are also tree covered. The large amount of snow within the Red River drainage basin is expected to cause major flooding problems for that area. Be sure to visit Donald Schwert's FARGO FLOOD page as it follows the story. Earlier views |
