• ES Picture of the Day 29 2023

    From Black Panther@21:1/186 to All on Sun Jan 29 11:00:58 2023
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Winter’s Black and White — and Gray — World

    January 27, 2023

    RayB_epod_slcapsnow424c_01jan23 (003)

    RayB_epod_muryparksnow459c_03jan23 (003)

    Photographer: Ray Boren

    Summary Author: Ray Boren

    Storminess and repetitive snow-shoveling kept me home most of the time,
    but during a few breaks in the weather I felt compelled to see what all
    that snow was doing. I was surprised by how desaturated the urban world
    around me seemed, as demonstrated in the two photographs here. And to
    be clear: These are COLOR photographs. The first, taken on New Year’s
    Day, January 1, 2023, is of a tree-lined promenade that encircles the
    Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. Strips of fresh snow, instead
    of springtime cherry blossoms, line the trees, and a man can be seen
    walking away, disappearing around a curve in wispy fog. A second image,
    taken on the third day of the weather event, January 3, 2023, features
    a calm, reflective pond fed by Little Cottonwood Creek, in Salt
    Lake City, in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley.

    Seeing the world “ in black and white” has come to imply a narrow
    perspective. But the lack of color, as we perceive it with limited
    human eyes, can represent both reality and an aesthetic choice.
    Ansel Adams, the famed exponent of black and white photography,
    noted this, and used the gradations between black and white to express
    his appreciation for the grays in his images — and in life. “Our lives
    at times seem a study in contrast,” he said, “love and hate, birth and
    death, right and wrong … everything seen in absolutes of black and
    white. Too often we are not aware that it is the shades of gray that
    add depth and meaning to the starkness of those extremes.”

    Plentiful rain turned to water-heavy snow as the new year, 2023,
    debuted where I live, on the Rocky Mountains’ western margin. Snow
    piled up over several bleak mid-winter days, as low blankets of cloud
    smothered the landscape. The U.S. National Weather Service reported
    that an atmospheric river — sometimes called a “Pineapple Express”
    — was flowing from the tropics across the Pacific Ocean, aiming its
    potent moisture first at coastal California, which experienced
    flooding. The flow surged inland across the Sierra Nevada Range and
    North America’s Great Basin before slamming into Utah’s Wasatch
    Mountains (and ski resorts). It’s a heck of a way to run a historic
    drought, which has been afflicting the West for two decades, according
    to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.


    Salt Lake City, Utah Coordinates: 40.7608, -111.8910


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    Snowflakes on Mount Etna
    More...

    Cryosphere Links

    * Guide to Frost
    * What is the Cryosphere?
    * Bentley Snow Crystals
    * Glaciers of the World
    * Ice, Snow, and Glaciers: The Water Cycle
    * The National Snow and Ice Data Center Google Earth Images
    * Snow and Ice Crystals

    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

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