Images
March 21, 2019 - Sea ice swirls in the Sea of Okhotsk
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Sea ice swirled in the Sea of Okhotsk in the closing days of winter, 2019. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the frosty scene on March 18.
The curling, thin ice nearly hugs the coast of Russia’s Sakhalin Island in the north then extends, in ever-narrowing swirls, to the snow-covered Hokkaido Island, Japan. This narrow corridor of ice rides the East Sakhalin Current which flows southward near the coast of Sakhalin Island and weakens as it approaches Hokkaido. The East Sakhalin Current wanes in summer when a warm current pushes through the Soya Strait (between Sakhalin and Hokkaido). The flow of the Soya Warm Current (SWC) typically begins in April and peaks in the summer months.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 3/18/2019
Resolutions:
1km (173.6 KB), 500m (435.2 KB), 250m (1.3 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Sea ice swirled in the Sea of Okhotsk in the closing days of winter, 2019. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the frosty scene on March 18.
The curling, thin ice nearly hugs the coast of Russia’s Sakhalin Island in the north then extends, in ever-narrowing swirls, to the snow-covered Hokkaido Island, Japan. This narrow corridor of ice rides the East Sakhalin Current which flows southward near the coast of Sakhalin Island and weakens as it approaches Hokkaido. The East Sakhalin Current wanes in summer when a warm current pushes through the Soya Strait (between Sakhalin and Hokkaido). The flow of the Soya Warm Current (SWC) typically begins in April and peaks in the summer months.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 3/18/2019
Resolutions:
1km (173.6 KB), 500m (435.2 KB), 250m (1.3 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
