File:Fresh Snow in Tibet (MODIS).jpg

English: October 19, 2023 October 13, 2023

A storm system crossed northern Tibet between October 16-18, 2023, dropping a swath of fresh snow across the Kunlun Shan Mountains. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of the snowy scene on October 19.

In this type of image, grass appears vibrant green, open land looks brown or tan, water is deep blue, and snow looks electric blue. Clouds usually look white, but very cold clouds that contain ice crystals may also be tinted electric blue.

Fresh snowfall covers nearly all of the higher elevations, but lower elevations remain snow-free on October 19. To give a visual impression of how much snow fell in recent days, this image can be compared to another Terra MODIS image acquired of the same area on October 13 simply by clicking on the dates below the images.

The heavy precipitation evidenced by widespread snow is in sharp contrast to the tan shades of the Taklamakan Desert, near the north (top) of the images. Despite their proximity, the Taklamakan is considered one of the driest areas on Earth, while the Tibetan Plateau contains the largest reservoir of water outside of the polar regions. Indeed, the Tibetan Plateau has been called “the Asian water tower” in honor of the rich supply of water captured in snowpack, and because the headwaters of many major rivers in Asia (the Indus, Brahmaputra, Yellow, and Lancang-Mekong) begin in this region.