In southwestern Russia, snow has retreated from the brown landscape, and farmers are preparing land for the spring planting. This Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from March 31, 2003, shows scattered fires marked with red dots. Fires are concentrated in the fan-shaped Volga River Delta at right and all along the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains at bottom). Ice persists in the northeastern corner of the Caspian Sea (right edge), while ice-free coastal waters swirl with colors that indicate a bloom of aquatic plant life.
The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS? maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
