See you Finland
This Picture of the Day contains the answer to the question December 2021 EO puzzle game.
It is the country of reindeer husbandry – one of the few places on earth where deer have been domesticated. It is the home of Europe’s only recognized indigenous people. It is the ancestral homeland of the “Father of Satellite Meteorology”. Welcome to Northern Europe.
The image above is part a global composite compiled from data acquired by the NOAA-NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite in 2016. This nocturnal view far into northern Europe was made possible by the “day-night ensemble”. Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite. VIIRS was built to be sensitive enough to measure night light emissions and reflections, distinguish the intensity of lights and observe their changes.
The satellite is named Verner Finland, meteorologist and longtime distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Finland built a flat radiometer which was launched by the Explorer 7 satellite in October 1959. It was the first of several earth observation instruments designed or built by Finland during a five-decade career, and he advanced the study of clouds, weather and the planet. radiation budget. “When I started working on meteorological satellites, nobody in the meteorology department seemed particularly interested,” he once said. “But they didn’t try to stop the industry from progressing, for which I’m forever grateful.”
Although Suomi grew up in Minnesota, he was the son of Finnish immigrants Åland Islands. In the Finnish language Suomi is the name of Finland.
This winter landscape comes from the Sami region of Finland (formerly Lapland), which is not far away Oulanga National Park. Natural color image acquired on January 30, 2014 Operational surveyor (Was) on Landsat 8. At that time, the Sun was only a few degrees above the southeast horizon, leading to long shadows in the valleys and golden rays touching the mountain tops. Some of the landscape is likely lit by the alpenglow effect, where snow, water and ice in the air reflect sunlight towards the ground, even when the sun is below the local horizon.
The Sámi region stretches across parts of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia, and is the ancient home of the indigenous Sámi people. About 80,000 to 100,000 Sami people are scattered across four countries, and they have long lived a nomadic life, hunting, gathering and reindeer herding. There are an estimated 500,000 reindeer living in Scandinavia, most of which are cared for and herded by the Sámi people.
According to some historical accounts, the Sámi may have herded reindeer as early as the 8th century. Although electronic tools and motor vehicles have become a part of today’s semi-nomadic herding life, the ancient Sami languages are still key to cattle management in the barren and cold region. Reindeer and the herding units that care for them are central parts of the culture by providing food, tools, clothing and structure for life in the middle of the changing times of Northern Europe.
NASA Earth Observatory images Joshua Stevensusing Black Marble data NASA/GSFCBlue Marble photos by Reto Stöckli and Landsat data US Geological Survey. The author of the story Michael Carlowicz.