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January 24, 2022 - Snow in Turkey
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A strong winter storm swept across Turkey in mid-January 2022, leaving a blanket of snow behind. According to local news, thousands of people were stranded on the Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep Motorway, a highway in southern Turkey, that was covered with snow and ice on January 18-19. An article by Daily Sabah state that around 186 people in need of medical care were evacuated to hospitals and that crews also distributed food to some 7,000 people on the highway where the vehicles could not move to low visibility and thick snow. Temperatures dropped in Gaziantep, a city in the westernmost part of Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia region, to -3˚C (-26.6˚F) and snow piled 50 centimeters (19.7 inches deep).
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of the snowy scene on January 20. This type of image uses infrared and visible light (MODIS bands 7,2,1) to help differentiate between snow and cloud, both which appear bright white in true-color images. In this type of image, snow appears electric blue while cloud remains bright white, although high, cold cloud that contains ice crystals may have a light wash of blue. Vegetation looks green, open land appears tan, and water appears black or inky-blue. On January 20, snow stretches across Turkey, with the thickest snow blanketing the southeast section of the country.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 1/20/2022
Resolutions:
1km (1 MB), 500m (2.7 MB), 250m (1.8 MB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
A strong winter storm swept across Turkey in mid-January 2022, leaving a blanket of snow behind. According to local news, thousands of people were stranded on the Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep Motorway, a highway in southern Turkey, that was covered with snow and ice on January 18-19. An article by Daily Sabah state that around 186 people in need of medical care were evacuated to hospitals and that crews also distributed food to some 7,000 people on the highway where the vehicles could not move to low visibility and thick snow. Temperatures dropped in Gaziantep, a city in the westernmost part of Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia region, to -3˚C (-26.6˚F) and snow piled 50 centimeters (19.7 inches deep).
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of the snowy scene on January 20. This type of image uses infrared and visible light (MODIS bands 7,2,1) to help differentiate between snow and cloud, both which appear bright white in true-color images. In this type of image, snow appears electric blue while cloud remains bright white, although high, cold cloud that contains ice crystals may have a light wash of blue. Vegetation looks green, open land appears tan, and water appears black or inky-blue. On January 20, snow stretches across Turkey, with the thickest snow blanketing the southeast section of the country.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 1/20/2022
Resolutions:
1km (1 MB), 500m (2.7 MB), 250m (1.8 MB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
