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September 11, 2025 - Late Summer on the Upper Peninsula
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Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) sits between Lake Superior (north) and Lake Michigan (south) and is bounded in the west by northeastern Wisconsin. In the northeast, the UP borders Canada. The rugged peninsula is a year-round tourist destination, especially for those who love outdoor activities, such as fishing and hiking, and for “leaf-peepers”—tourists who seek stunning scenery as the leaves of deciduous trees turn bright colors each fall. The UP also holds abundant copper and iron resources, with native peoples mining copper as far back as 7,000 years ago.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image centered on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on September 2, 2025.
The image shows the first hints of fall color just beginning to show up in the central peninsula, but it is still quite spotty. The Detroit Free Press predicts patches of peak color to arrive in the UP the week of September 29, with both Detroit and the UP reaching maximum color in early October.
Bright spots of orange in the northeast are not created by leaves, but by mines located in the Marquette Iron Range. The last remaining large, active iron mine in this region is the Tilden Mine. According to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, the Tilden Mine is part of a major open pit mining area shared with the Empire Mine, which closed in 2016. The Tilden Mine has the capacity to produce eight million tons of iron ore pellets each year, making it one of the largest producers in the world. The 1,400-acre reservoir and a tailings basin of similar size appear orange in true-color satellite images.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 9/2/2025
Resolutions:
1km (207.5 KB), 500m (555.4 KB), 250m (1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) sits between Lake Superior (north) and Lake Michigan (south) and is bounded in the west by northeastern Wisconsin. In the northeast, the UP borders Canada. The rugged peninsula is a year-round tourist destination, especially for those who love outdoor activities, such as fishing and hiking, and for “leaf-peepers”—tourists who seek stunning scenery as the leaves of deciduous trees turn bright colors each fall. The UP also holds abundant copper and iron resources, with native peoples mining copper as far back as 7,000 years ago.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image centered on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on September 2, 2025.
The image shows the first hints of fall color just beginning to show up in the central peninsula, but it is still quite spotty. The Detroit Free Press predicts patches of peak color to arrive in the UP the week of September 29, with both Detroit and the UP reaching maximum color in early October.
Bright spots of orange in the northeast are not created by leaves, but by mines located in the Marquette Iron Range. The last remaining large, active iron mine in this region is the Tilden Mine. According to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, the Tilden Mine is part of a major open pit mining area shared with the Empire Mine, which closed in 2016. The Tilden Mine has the capacity to produce eight million tons of iron ore pellets each year, making it one of the largest producers in the world. The 1,400-acre reservoir and a tailings basin of similar size appear orange in true-color satellite images.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 9/2/2025
Resolutions:
1km (207.5 KB), 500m (555.4 KB), 250m (1 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
