March 30, 2006
At 10:40 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over the eastern Mediterranean as the shadow of the Moon traveled across Libya and the Mediterranean. As Aqua passed over, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured the top image in this pair. The deep shadow cast by the Moon as it passed in front of the Sun is clearly visible on the Earth, in stark contrast to the daylight view of the same area captured just an hour earlier by the MODIS on the Terra satellite. During the eclipse, clouds and snow were still visible, but the land surface below was lost in darkness.
References & Resources
NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
