Blustery weather spread across Europe on February 23, 2005, blasting even the normally balmy Spain with snow and freezing temperatures. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA�s Terra satellite acquired this image of the aftermath of the storm in Spain on February 25, 2005. The snow is centered on three areas: the Cantabrian Mountains on the northern coast, the center of the country near the capital, Madrid, and in the Pyrenees Mountains on the French border (all visible in the large images). The above images show the snow near Madrid. The top scene is in true color as the human eye would see it. The lower scene uses MODIS’ infrared observations to differentiate between cloud and snow. Here, the snow is turquoise, while cloud is white. As both images illustrate, the four inches of snow that fell in Madrid seem to have disappeared, but the nearby mountains are still covered.
NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Both images are available in additional resolutions.
