File:Alaska (MODIS 2021-03-07).jpg

English: On March 4, 2021, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a gorgeous true-color image of a sunny late winter day across Southcentral Alaska. The entire region is blanketed in snow and ice, brightly contrasting against deep and darker water of the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound. A layer of sea ice decorates the Cook Inlet (west), where the waters are tinted gray from sediment. This sediment is most likely primarily glacial flour—fine, almost powdery rock residue created from the slow grinding motion of glaciers. White cloud appears almost like paint-brush strokes across the central Gulf of Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula. On the mainland, the thickest snow appears brightest white. Where snow is thinner—typically in low-lying valleys—it is tinted gray.