February 21, 2018
Cosmos Editorial
Snowfall in central China. Dark grey spots and lines are cities and roads.
Joshua Stevens / NASA Earth Observatory
Inside a city hit by a snowstorm all is blanketed in white. From street level, the concrete, steel and glass that reveals the presence of humans can seem to disappear.
From space, however, these human-made “heat islands” and the web of roads that connects them are clearly visible.
The image above, taken by NASA’s Terra satellite on 10 January 2018, shows the results of waves of snowstorms across central China. Cities stand out as dark grey spots on the white background, joined together by the lines of major roads.
