June 27, 2022 - Summer Sunshine on the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

Sunshine and clear skies permitted a gorgeous view that stretched from Green Bay to Lake Ontario on June 23, 2022. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of an early summer scene over several of the Great Lakes that same day.

There are five Great Lakes: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario and all are connected by various lakes and rivers. Together they span a total surface area of about 94,600 square miles (245,013 square kilometers) to create the largest freshwater system on Earth. The lakes captured in this image are, from the west, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and in the southeast, Lake Ontario. Green Bay connects to the western side of Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago can be seen to the south of Green Bay. Georgian Bay is the large body of water that connects to the eastern side of Lake Huron.

Lake Superior, which is not see in this image, is the largest of the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan and Huron come in at second and third in size, although they are hydrologically connected and often act like a single lake. Lake Ontario takes fourth place, and the prize for the smallest lake goes to Lake Erie (not seen in this image). All of the Great Lakes are shared by the United States (south) and Canada (north) except for Lake Michigan which sits entirely within the United States.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 6/23/2022
Resolutions: 1km (1 MB), 500m (2.6 MB), 250m (2 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC