Data from the MODIS spaceborne system has been processed by researchers of Ben-Gurion University.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
A spell of dry, below-zero weather, which held Israel in its grip for over a week, is apparently ending with expected rain, but it has been mapped for posterity by images from space.
Spatial distribution of land surface temperature can be studied by analyzing satellite images. Data from the MODIS spaceborne system have been processed by Dr. Natalya Panov and Prof. Arnon Karnieli, researchers at the Remote Sensing Laboratory of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.
The color image shows that on the night between January 13 and 14, the land surface temperatures in the Galilee, inner mountains and the Negev were as low as -3 Celsius.
Even lower temperatures were observed in the Golan Heights.
The MODIS system is installed onboard two spacecrafts that belong to US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA).
It has 36 spectral bands in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum; the thermal ones shown in the image were scanned in one-kilometer resolution. The MODIS system passes over Israel four times every 24 hours.