April snow cover across parts of Michigan and Wisconsin
250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color images (centered near Marquette, Michigan)
250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images from the SSEC MODIS Today site showed that significant snow cover remained in parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (above) and also in parts of northeastern Wisconsin (below) on 09 April 2010. Snow cover appears white on the true color images, but cyan on the false color images.
Total snowfall amounts from the 07-08 April 2010 storm were as high as 10.2 inches near Marquette, Michigan and 5.8 inches at Green Bay, Wisconsin. On the morning of 09 April, the snow depth that still remained on the ground included 8 inches at Marquette in Michigan and 5 inches near Green Bay in Wisconsin. The 5.8 inches that fell at Green Bay was the 9th greatest snowfall on record for the month of April.
250-meter resolution MODIS true color and false color images (centered near Green Bay, Wisconsin)
MODIS false color RGB images — created using AWIPS images of the MODIS 0.65 µm visible and 2.1 µm near-IR “snow/ice detection” channels — revealed how quickly the snow cover (which appeared as darker shades of red) was melting during the short amount of time between the 17:10 UTC and 18:54 UTC images (below). Patches of cirrus cloud moving eastward across the northern part of the images (as well as portions of the supercooled water droplet cloud deck that was beginning to glaciate to the east) took on a light pink shade in the RGB images. This particular image example offers a glimpse at the type of RGB image capability that should be available with the upcoming AWIPS II software.
Similar near-IR “snow/ice detection” channels will be available on the ABI instrument aboard the GOES-R satellite (scheduled for launch in 2015).
MODIS false color RGB images (17:10 UTC and 18:54 UTC)