October 9, 2020 - Fall Colors in the Midwest

Fall Colors in the Midwest

Each autumn, as air temperatures begin to cool and daylight shorten, the summer-greens typical of most of the United States undergo a beautiful transformation. Leaves turn gorgeous colors—reds, oranges, and yellows—while summer crops turn golden and tan as harvest approaches. This transformation begins in the northern states and higher elevations as early as mid-September, then sweeps southward to completion by early November.

On October 7, 2020, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of autumn colors in the Midwest.

Four states surrounding Lake Michigan can be viewed in this image. From the northeast and moving clockwise, they are Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Clusters of gray pixels mark the hands of human activity, especially in the cities of Chicago, Illinois which sits on the northwestern shores of Lake Michigan and, moving north along the shoreline, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin and Michigan typically see some of the earliest leaf color change in the United States, with peak foliage expected in late September through the first days of October. Peak bloom in northern Indiana and Illinois tends to run about a week later.

According to local leaf reports, the leaf transformation seems to be running a little behind schedule in many areas this year and this is also suggested by the remaining greens in many of the more forested regions. However, copious golds and oranges across the scene, including in forested regions, highlight that the leaf-change season is well underway even if running slightly late.

Much of the color in this image most likely comes from agricultural fields. Indiana and Illinois both lie well within the Corn Belt, the area with the highest corn production in the United States. Drives through either state will take you through miles and miles of waving green corn stalks in the summer – and these stalks turn gorgeous amber in the fall. While drying corn stalks don’t have the wide color variation of autumn leaves, they paint a beautiful golden palette across the Midwest in early autumn.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 10/7/2020
Resolutions: 1km (158.2 KB), 500m (573.8 KB), 250m (1.7 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC