Images
March 22, 2021 - Green up in Louisiana
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The month of March is a time of transition across the southern United States—a time when lengthening days and increasing warmth spurs lush vegetative growth. From a satellite’s vantage point, the wash of green that appears over the landscape is one of the most noticeable signs of winter’s passing and the arrival of spring. With an estimated annual last frost date of March 15, green-up arrives early in Southern Louisiana.
On March 18, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of a greening southern Louisiana landscape. The image centers on the Mississippi Delta, with the muddy Mississippi River winding towards the southeast to spill into the Gulf of Mexico. The Atchafalaya River courses southward to the west of the Mississippi, depositing copious sediment into the Atchafalaya Bay. The city of New Orleans is marked by an area of gray pixels south of Lake Pontchartrain. Other than the rivers, most of the landscape wears spring-time shades of green. Faint green can even be seen in the otherwise gray New Orleans.
While a single satellite image gives valuable information about a given location on a given day, sometimes comparing images collected on two different days gives even more information. The NASA Worldview App makes it simple to compare images. To view a roll-over comparison between this MODIS image collected on March 18 with the Aqua MODIS image collected on February 19, 2021 tap
here.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/18/2021
Resolutions:
1km (241.6 KB), 500m (681.2 KB), 250m (496.8 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
The month of March is a time of transition across the southern United States—a time when lengthening days and increasing warmth spurs lush vegetative growth. From a satellite’s vantage point, the wash of green that appears over the landscape is one of the most noticeable signs of winter’s passing and the arrival of spring. With an estimated annual last frost date of March 15, green-up arrives early in Southern Louisiana.
On March 18, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of a greening southern Louisiana landscape. The image centers on the Mississippi Delta, with the muddy Mississippi River winding towards the southeast to spill into the Gulf of Mexico. The Atchafalaya River courses southward to the west of the Mississippi, depositing copious sediment into the Atchafalaya Bay. The city of New Orleans is marked by an area of gray pixels south of Lake Pontchartrain. Other than the rivers, most of the landscape wears spring-time shades of green. Faint green can even be seen in the otherwise gray New Orleans.
While a single satellite image gives valuable information about a given location on a given day, sometimes comparing images collected on two different days gives even more information. The NASA Worldview App makes it simple to compare images. To view a roll-over comparison between this MODIS image collected on March 18 with the Aqua MODIS image collected on February 19, 2021 tap here.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/18/2021
Resolutions:
1km (241.6 KB), 500m (681.2 KB), 250m (496.8 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
