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| Credit: ESA/NASA-M.Maurer |
Snowfall in Greece may become the new normal. Greece had enormous amounts of snow for the second year in a row, blanketing the country in white. In early February, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer captured this aerial picture of the town of Chalcis, located in the Euboean Gulf, from the International Space Station.
"In line with its national colors, wintry Greece showed itself in blue and white," he said on social media.
Snowfall in Greece may become the new normal. Greece had enormous amounts of snow for the second year in a row, blanketing the country in white. In early February, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer captured this aerial picture of the town of Chalcis, located in the Euboean Gulf, from the International Space Station.
"In line with its national colors, wintry Greece showed itself in blue and white," he said on social media.
Storm Elpida stormed over Greece and portions of Turkey, creating widespread disruption in the Mediterranean country famed for its white-sand beaches and whitewashed villas rather than snow. While it is difficult to ignore the beauty of this image's white and blue countryside, it is a sobering reminder of the impacts of climate change on the world. Especially when contrasted to images of flames in Greece taken by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet during his Alpha mission in the summer of 2021.
Astronauts, like satellites monitoring Earth from above, are likewise witnesses of a fast-changing Earth. Astronaut photos not only supplement satellite data but also play an important role in climate advocacy to the general public.
Matthias is doing critical research on the International Space Station for his Cosmic Kiss mission, and he is active on social media, disseminating both the rewards and the risks. A beautiful image like this conveys a thousand words about how humans interact with and impact their surroundings. We might be impressed by both the beauty and the actuality of the event. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
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