I want to use the images of the Sierra snowpack in an article regarding the water crisis in the Central Valley. The article would appear in the August issue of the Community Alliance, a non-profit community newspaper based in Fresno, Calif with a circulation of about 10,000. I would also like to credit the photographer or organization responsible for the graphic. My email is enmascarao@yahoo.com. Powerful graphic, hope to hear from you soon.
-Stan Santos
enmascarao@yahoo.com

Here's the original along with Terms of Use: Please credit NASA/NOAA
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail2.p ... iaTypeID=1

Edit - oh, hey - the thing about the credit was to answer a specific question that was asked at the end of the last page - some fella wants to publish the shot in a newspaper. Nothing else intended - my response looks kinda funny dangling on its own.

Well technically I don't think you are required to credit the US gov't or an agency when using their works. At least that's a reasonable understanding of what would be meant by 'without restriction'.

Anyone may, without restriction under U.S. copyright laws:

•reproduce the work in print or digital form;
•create derivative works;
•perform the work publicly;
•display the work;
•distribute copies or digitally transfer the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.

The terms on their website state that their terms are that they wanted to be credited.

I forget where I found that image in the first place- but it wasn't from the original NASA/NOAA site.

Let me go add that link to my original post.

I wonder if one can find places on the NASA site to compare other days, rather than just this one day in January? I drove through the Sierra in May, and they sure looked pretty white at the time -- it would have appeared that way on sat photos, though the snow coat at the time was rather thin. Something in best interest of sensationalism, is not necessarily in the best interest of honesty. I think the graphs tell a much better story.

Slightly different image boundaries but http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/imagery.php has a catalog of historical MODIS imagery. Here's Jan 1 2013:

MoapaPk wrote:I wonder if one can find places on the NASA site to compare other days, rather than just this one day in January? I drove through the Sierra in May, and they sure looked pretty white at the time -- it would have appeared that way on sat photos, though the snow coat at the time was rather thin. Something in best interest of sensationalism, is not necessarily in the best interest of honesty. I think the graphs tell a much better story.

True. I went out to Nine Lake Basin in SEKI in May exactly 52 weeks after a similar trip last year. I expected to see less snow coverage, as the snowpack was smaller volume. But recent storms had the area nearly 100% covered... far more than 2013. Overall there was less snow as it was very thin even though the year before the area probably had only 40% coverage at best.