NASA MODIS Image of the Day: October 25, 2011 – Fall snow near Lake Baikal
Snow comes early and often in Siberia, generally falling by the middle of October in the lands near Lake Baikal and sometimes even earlier in the mountains.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over the region on October 24, 2011 and captured this true-color image of an autumn scene dusted in white.
The large lake which begins in the northeast corner of the image is Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world, with a volume estimated at over 23,600 km3 (about 5,700 cu mi). Surrounding the northern edge of the lake, tall mountains of the Stanovoy Range are covered in bright white snow. Stretching from the southern end of Lake Baikal to the northwest are the Sayan Mountains, also covered with fresh snow. The dry lands of Mongolia, south of the black borderline which has been overlaid on the image, are dusted with white as are the green lands near the Angara River, which winds north from Lake Baikal. The lower elevations near Lake Baikal remain snow-free. The large volume of water in the lake cools slowly during winter. This helps keep the lands close to the lake warm, causing snow to arrive slightly later, on average, than in the surrounding lands.
