January 15, 2021 - Clouds Curve Around Spain and Portugal

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   Clouds Curve Around Spain and Portugal
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   Offshore clouds wrapped around Spain and Portugal in mid-January 2021,
   covering the ocean but leaving sunshine on the beaches. The Moderate
   Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra
   satellite acquired a true-color image of the scene on January 13.

   Marine stratocumulus clouds form over water, typically oceans, and can
   have either closed- or open-cell forms. Closed-cell marine
   stratocumulus appear full and “fluffy” while open-cell forms appear
   more like a cloudy lattice or lace, with a thin structure around open
   air. Closed-cell clouds are thick enough to cover almost 100 percent of
   the underlying surface and reflect a large portion of solar radiation,
   thus tend to cool the underlying land.

   On land, snow caps Spain’s Cantabrian Mountains and part of the Central
   Plateau. Light gray areas that hang over low-lying areas and seep
   through valleys are banks of low cloud—also known as fog.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 1/13/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (61 KB),  500m (215 KB),  250m (666.4 KB)
   Bands Used: 1,4,3
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-01-15
 
