When the Landsat 8 satellite acquired this natural-color image of the Dzhugdzhur Mountains, chilly autumn and winter weather had begun to leave its mark on the remote landscape in Russia’s Far East.
Fall color had come and mostly gone. In September, valleys in the area had burst with brilliant yellows and oranges as birches, larch, and other deciduous vegetation reached peak color. But the valleys had become more muted and brown by October, as leaves withered and dropped. The spruce and pine forests higher up in the hills, meanwhile, retained their green needles, as they will through the bitterly cold winter to come.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory