June 22, 2008 - Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

The MODIS on the Terra satellite caught this view of Spitsbergen on May 19, 2008. Spitsbergen is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago. This archipelago is located in the Arctic Ocean north of Scandinavia, and considered part of Norway .

It is hard to differentiate land from ice in this image, and the coastline of Spitsbergen is hard to trace because of it. There is a map of the island here that shows what the island looks like free of ice.

One of the visible features of Spitsbergen is Hornsund, a fjord on the western side on the southern part of the island, which faces the Greenland Sea.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 05/19/2008
Resolutions: 1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC