NASA Photo of the Week

Lake Ontario appeared relatively free of plankton blooms, which often form in warmer months due to agricultural runoff into the lake. Some can be seen as a light green color to the southwest in Lake Erie.

A much different landscape was visible in late May across the eastern Great Lakes region from the frozen topography of winter just a few months earlier.

In early March, many parts of the lakes were covered with ice while the land surface was barren and blanketed with snow.

When NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the region on May 21, 2009, deciduous forests had rebounded from their wintertime dormancy, showing up as bright green.

A patchwork of farmland and pastures under human cultivation appeared light tan in color, especially around the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York and southern parts of Ontario and Quebec.

A much darker green terrain in northeastern parts of New York represented the thicker forest cover of the Adirondack Mountains, which show up peppered with dark patches of lakes and the shadows of mountain ridges.

The name Adirondacks is an Anglicized version of the Mohawk Indian word “ratirontaks,” meaning "they eat trees."

It was a derogatory term by which the Mohawk referred to neighboring Algonquian-speaking tribes. When food was scarce, the Algonquians would eat the buds and bark of trees.

Image: NASA MODIS Rapid Response System