November 9, 2021 - Snow in the Alps

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Snow in the Alps
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It was beginning to look a lot like winter in the Alps, thanks to a set
of snowstorms that carried cold temperatures and fluffy precipitation
across the length of the mountain chain in the first week of November
2021. The much-needed snow came just in the nick of time, as ski season
typically starts in early- to mid-November. Several ski websites
heralded the opening of a few resorts, thanks to the snowfall, and
listed many preparing to roll out their season within the next week. On
November 6, the PlanetSKI website reported that 19 resorts had already
opened across Europe.

The 2020 ski season—like much travel and activities across the
world—had been substantially limited due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In
many countries, such as Italy, resorts shut down amid rising cases and
high mortality rates. Other countries, such as Switzerland, struggled
to permit skiers access to slopes, but with strict precautions. Even if
one could ski at any given resort, travel restrictions made the ability
to travel internationally to the alpine resorts very limited or, in
some cases, impossible.

This winter, thanks to improved accessibility to vaccines, most
countries look towards opening their resorts while avoiding
super-spreader situations. The SkiBro website assures us that France is
determined to get back to the big-dollar ski business, quoting the
Secretary of State for Tourism as saying, “the message is very clear:
This winter, we will ski!”. The French “Passe Sanitaire” (vaccination
pass) is required to use most public services or to enter public spaces
but will not be required on ski lifts. In early October, Italy decreed
that their resorts will open—under appropriate precautions. According
to SkiBro, this means that all employees will hold a “green pass”
vaccination certificate and wear surgical-grade face masks. In
addition, all skiers and snowboarders must be fully vaccinated, and all
cable cars, gondolas, and other enclosed lifts will operate at 80
percent capacity.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a false-color image highlighting the
beautiful blanket of snow across the Alps on November 6, 2021. In this
type of image, snow appears bright blue while cloud appears white. Very
cold clouds, which contain ice crystals, may take on a tint of bright
blue as well. Vegetation appears green, open land looks tan, and deep
water appears black or inky-blue. This makes it simple to sort out the
snow cover from cloud and land. In the lower right corner (southeast),
the clouds are quite blue, suggesting an active snowstorm.

A single image shows one snapshot of the region. Sometimes it’s more
informative to see change over time. The NASA Worldview App makes it
easy to compare the same area on two different dates through images
acquired by the same satellites. On October 28, very little snow sat
atop the Alps, but the view on November 6 was stunningly different. To
see a rollover comparison, click here.

The NASA Worldview app provides a satellite's perspective of the planet
as it looks today and as it has in the past through daily satellite
images. Worldview is part of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and
Information System. EOSDIS makes the agency's large repository of data
accessible and freely available to the public.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 11/6/2021
Resolutions: 1km (1.5 MB), 500m (3.8 MB), 250m (2.5 MB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-11-09

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