At the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Maryland, you will find the US Department of Agriculture’s Low Temperature Scanning Electron Microscope (LT-SEM). One of the LT-SEM’s uses is for the study of snow crystals. Hydrologists study photographs of the grain sizes, shapes and associations in relation to passive microwave remote sensing in an…
For those that live in colder climates where snow is an annual occurrence (Toronto, Canada myself), frost shadows are a fairly common sighting. But for our readers in warmer temperatures who perhaps never get to experience the joy (and pain) of a snowy winter, you may have never witnessed this phenomena. Recent posts on…
Simon Beck is an artist from Southern England that uses snowshoes to create giant land art in the snow. Most of his work takes place in the ski resort of Les Arcs in the French Alps where Beck has a chalet and spends most of his winters. After planning the initial design on paper…
Located in the mountains of Nagano live a group of snow monkeys in an area called Jigokudani (Hell Valley). You can see the famous snow monkeys in Jigokudani Yaen-koen (Hell Valley Wild Monkey Park). These particular snow monkeys are used to being around people and living as if they are humans. There is an…
Photograph by SIEMA @ Panoramio.com The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is an international mountain sightseeing route some 90 kilometers (56 miles) long. The route goes across the 3,000-meter-high North Alpine mountains, the so-called “roof of Japan,” and connects Toyama and Shinano Omachi. You can enjoy the panorama by taking a train, highland bus,…