Magnificent views of the region surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah arecaptured in these winter and summer images from the Multi-angle ImagingSpectroRadiometer’s vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. Salt Lake City,situated near the southeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, is host tothe 2002 Winter Olympic Games, which open Friday, February 8. Venues forfive of the scheduled events are at city (indoor) locations, and five inmountain (outdoor) facilities. All ten can be found within the areacontained in these images. Some of the outdoor events take place atOgden, situated north of Salt Lake City and at Park City, located to theeast.
Salt Lake City is surrounded by mountains including the Wasatch Range tothe east, and the temperature difference between the Great Salt Lake andthe overlying atmosphere enhances the moisture content of winter storms.These factors, in combination with natural cloud seeding by saltcrystals from the lake, are believed to result in greater snowfall inneighboring areas compared to more distant locales.
In addition to the obvious difference in snow cover between the winterand summer views, water color changes in parts of the Great Salt Lakeare apparent in these images. The distinctly different colorationbetween the northern and southern arms of the Great Salt Lake is theresult of a rock-filled causeway built in 1953 to support a permanentrailroad. The causeway has resulted in decreased circulation between thetwo arms and higher salinity on the northern side. The southern part ofthe lake includes the large Antelope Island, and at full resolution abridge connecting it to the mainland can be discerned.
These images are natural color views acquired on February 8, 2001 andJune 16, 2001, respectively. Eachimage represents an area of about 220 kilometers x 285 kilometers.
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Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.
