This innovative fusion-based product between an imager and a sounder instrument is necessitated by the VIIRS instrument’s lack of IR bands that are responsive to atmospheric absorption. This Level-2 (L2) swath product leverages the VIIRS and CrIS instruments’ assets to create narrowband radiances based on the Aqua Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer’s (MODIS) spectral response functions. Such true-color views of the North Pole are quite rare, as most of the time much of the region within the Arctic Circle is cloaked in clouds.In support of the primary goal of the Joint Polar Satellite System-1’s mission (JPSS-1 was renamed NOAA-20 after it reached its final orbit) to provide continuity in the portfolio of Earth science data products with those derived from the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua missions, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) Fusion is a novel product. In this image, each pixel is one square kilometer. Leads are particularly common during the summer, when temperatures are higher and the ice is thinner. Throughout the region within the Arctic Circle leads are continually opening and closing due to the direction and intensity of shifting wind and ocean currents.
Notice the considerable number of cracks, or "leads," in the ice that appear as dark networks of lines. The irregular whitish shapes toward the bottom of the image are clouds, which are often difficult to distinguish from the white Arctic surface. In this image, the sea ice appears white and areas of open water, or recently refrozen sea surface, appear black. (Click for more details about MODIS Direct Broadcast data.) The scene was received and processed by Norway's MODIS Direct Broadcast data receiving station, located in Svalbard, within seconds of photons hitting the sensor's detectors.
This true-color image over the North Pole was acquired by the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard the Terra spacecraft, on May 5, 2000.
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