April 19, 2019 - Scandinavia

Europe

On April 15, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of a nearly cloud-free, spring day in Scandinavia.

The landscape of the Scandinavian Peninsula was largely carved by glaciers during the last ice age. The jagged inlets of the coast of snow-covered Norway are the result of extremely heavy, thick glaciers which scoured troughs into the coast as they slid toward the ocean. The deepest fjord on Norway’s coast, known as Sogn Fjord, lies in southwest Norway and is 4,291 feet (1,308 m) deep. Glaciers also molded the mountains in northernmost Sweden, but most of the Swedish landscape is flat and dotted with lakes. Two of the biggest, Lake Vanern and Lake Vattern sit in the lowland and are clearly seen in this image. Lake Vanern is the larger of the two. Just south of the Scandinavian Peninsula is the country of Denmark, located on Europe's Jutland Peninsula.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 4/15/2019
Resolutions: 1km (606.1 KB), 500m (2 MB), 250m (6.9 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC