A NASA satellite has caught southeast Poland's Bieszczady National Park mid-change: reds and golds on the forested slopes, and tan patches of mountain meadow higher up. Landsat 9 took the image on October 8, 2026, and NASA's Earth Observatory published it on October 19. It's a pretty picture, and it also shows how a landscape sorts itself by altitude.
Why the leaves change
European beech (Fagus sylvatica) dominates the forests here, with sycamore maple adding color. As temperatures drop and daylight shrinks, the trees cut back production of chlorophyll, the molecule plants use to make food. Once the green fades, the yellow and red pigments underneath show through.
Where the trees stop
Beech only climbs so far in this area, roughly 1,000 to 1,260 meters (3,300 to 4,100 feet). Above that sits the polonina, a Slavic word for subalpine meadow, made of open grassland and thickets of rowan, willow and green alder. In the image, polonina patches along ridge tops east-southeast of Smerek look tan, since they've lost their summer green.
Ice-age survivors and wildlife
NASA describes the beech as a descendant of ice-age survivors. After the glaciers retreated, the trees spread north across Europe from refuges in the Carpathians, the Alps and other ranges. Parts of the park belong to UNESCO's network of ancient and primeval beech forests, which spans 18 countries.
Animals are a draw too. Bison that had vanished from the wild were brought back to the area in the 1960s, and recent surveys cited by NASA put them in the hundreds. Brown bears and Eurasian lynx also live in these forests, and the bears are fattening up before winter hibernation.
Michala Garrison made the image from U.S. Geological Survey Landsat data, using the Operational Land Imager, with a story by Lindsey Doermann.
NASA's piece doesn't say how this year's color compares with earlier seasons, so we can't tell you whether it's early, late or typical. We also haven't independently confirmed the animal figures, which come from NASA's account of local surveys, and we haven't yet heard from park officials. Have you ever planned a trip around fall color, and would you pick a view from orbit or from the trail?
Sources
- 1.Autumn Paints Poland's Bieszczady Mountains - NASA Science · NASA Science
Reported by the WattsUpNext desk from the sources linked below. Spot an error? Tell us at corrections@wattsupnext.com.
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