Austral summer is a popular time for hikers to tramp across the stunning New Zealand back country. But this year in the mountains of South Island, there are hints of events unfolding 2,000 kilometers away. Carried by the wind, dust and ash particles from Australia have painted some glaciers in New Zealand with a brown-orange tint.
A natural-color image acquired on Nov. 11, 2019, during an extremely hot and dry season in eastern Australia, shows areas of dirty snow and ice in New Zealand's Southern Alps.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
