Nighttime views of lake effect snow bands over Lake Superior
Shown above are detailed nighttime views of multiple lake effect snow (LES) bands over Lake Superior, provided by Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images on 04 January, 05 January and 06 January 2018. These “visible images at night” were possible due to ample illumination by the Moon, which was in the Waning Gibbous phase (at 92% of Full on 04 January, 84% of Full on 05 January and 75% of Full on 06 January). The continued flow of arctic air across the still-unfrozen waters of Lake Superior (and the other unfrozen Great Lakes) was responsible for the formation of these and a variety of other LES bands.Lake effect snow is finally coming to an end across most of the U.P. Here's a look at the 3-day snowfall totals across the region. https://t.co/yoXTpCNRbh pic.twitter.com/rWIGnvFRhf
— NWS Marquette (@NWSMarquette) January 6, 2018
For perspective, the daily morning minimum temperatures at Embarrass, Minnesota are also plotted on the images — on these 3 days Embarrass was the coldest official site in the US (including Alaska).
The VIIRS images were captured by the Space Science and Engineering Center direct broadcast ground station.