Icons of winter are sometimes found in unexpected places. In one striking example, a series of oval lagoons in a remote part of Siberia forms the shape of a towering snowman when viewed from above.
冬天的标志有时会出现在意想不到的地方。在一个引人注目的例子中，西伯利亚偏远地区的一系列椭圆形泻湖从上方观察时形成了一个高耸的雪人的形状。
This image, centered on the remote village of Billings and nearby Cape Billings on Russia’s Chukchi Peninsula, was captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) aboard Landsat 8 on June 16, 2025. Established in the 1930s as a port and supply point for the Soviet Union, the village sits on a narrow sandspit that separates the Arctic Ocean from a series of connected coastal inshore lagoons.
这张照片以俄罗斯楚科奇半岛上的比林斯偏远村庄和附近的比林斯角为中心，由 Landsat 8 号上的 OLI（操作陆地成像仪）于 2025 年 6 月 16 日拍摄。该村庄建于 1930 年代，是苏联的港口和补给点，坐落在一个狭窄的沙嘴上，将北冰洋与一系列相连的沿海泻湖分开。
The elongated, oval lagoons are frozen over and flanked by sea ice . Though June is one of the warmest months in Billings, ice cover is routine even then. Mean daily minimum temperatures are just minus 0.6 degrees Celsius (30.9 degrees Fahrenheit) in June, according to meteorological data .
细长的椭圆形泻湖被海冰覆盖并两侧被海冰覆盖。尽管六月是比林斯最温暖的月份之一，但即使在那时，冰盖也很常见。根据气象数据，6 月份每日平均最低气温仅为负 0.6 摄氏度（30.9 华氏度）。
Though the shape may seem engineered, it is natural and the product of geological processes common in the far north. The ground in this part of Siberia is frozen most of the year and pockmarked with spear-shaped ice wedges buried under the surface. Summer melting causes overlying soil to slump, leaving shallow depressions that fill with meltwater and form thermokarst lakes . Once created, consistency in the direction of the winds and waves likely aligned and elongated the lakes into the shapes seen in the image. The thin ridges separating the lakes may represent the edges of different ice wedges below the surface.
尽管其形状看似经过精心设计，但它是自然的，是遥远北方常见地质过程的产物。西伯利亚这一地区的地面一年中大部分时间都处于冰冻状态，地表下布满了矛状的冰楔。夏季融化导致上覆土壤塌陷，留下浅洼地，充满融水并形成热岩溶湖。一旦形成，风和波浪方向的一致性可能会对齐并将湖泊拉长成图像中看到的形状。分隔湖泊的细脊可能代表了地表以下不同冰楔的边缘。
The first reference to humans building snowmen dates back to the Middle Ages, according to the book The History of the Snowman . While three spherical segments are the most common form, other variants dominate in certain areas. In Japan , snowmen typically have just two segments and are rarely given arms. This five-segmented snowman-shaped series of lakes spans about 22 kilometers (14 miles) from top to bottom, making it roughly 600 times longer than the actual snowwoman that held the Guinness record for being the world’s tallest snowperson in 2025.
根据《雪人的历史》一书，人类第一次堆雪人可以追溯到中世纪。虽然三个球段是最常见的形式，但其他变体在某些领域占主导地位。在日本，雪人通常只有两部分，而且很少有手臂。这个五段式雪人形状的湖泊从上到下横跨约 22 公里（14 英里），比 2025 年保持世界最高雪人吉尼斯纪录的实际雪女长约 600 倍。
Snowmen are not the only winter icons tied to this remote landscape. For early expeditions to the Russian Arctic, reindeer offered one of the most reliable modes of transportation. That includes expeditions by the town’s namesake, Commodore Joseph Billings , a British-born naval officer who enlisted in the Russian navy and led a surveying expedition to find a Northeast Passage between 1790 and 1794.
雪人并不是与这片偏远地区相关的唯一冬季标志。对于早期前往俄罗斯北极的探险来说，驯鹿是最可靠的交通方式之一。其中包括与该镇同名的约瑟夫·比林斯准将 (Commodore Joseph Billings) 的探险活动，他是一位出生于英国的海军军官，曾加入俄罗斯海军，并在 1790 年至 1794 年间领导了一支勘探探险队寻找东北航道。
Although the hundred-plus members of the expedition did not reach Cape Billings, they explored much of the Chukchi Peninsula , producing some of the first accurate maps and further confirming that Asia and North America were separated by a strait. In the winter months, when their ships were beset by ice, the explorers moved to temporary camps on land and instead surveyed the region with reindeer-drawn wooden sleds, according to historical accounts . Winters, in fact, offered the best conditions for exploration because the peninsula’s many rivers and lakes turned into solid surfaces that were easy to traverse in comparison to the muddy bogs that open up in the summer.
尽管探险队的一百多名成员没有到达比林斯角，但他们探索了楚科奇半岛的大部分地区，绘制了一些第一批精确的地图，并进一步证实了亚洲和北美之间被海峡隔开。据历史记载，在冬季，当他们的船只被冰包围时，探险家们就转移到陆地上的临时营地，并用驯鹿拉的木雪橇勘察该地区。事实上，冬季为探索提供了最佳条件，因为与夏季开放的泥泞沼泽相比，半岛的许多河流和湖泊变成了坚固的表面，更容易穿越。
Indigenous Chukchi people living on the peninsula at the time routinely used reindeer to haul both people and cargo. A pair of reindeer can comfortably haul hundreds of pounds for several hours a day. In addition to their impressive endurance in cold temperatures, reindeer largely feed themselves by digging through snow and grazing on lichens , something that neither sled dogs nor horses can do.
当时生活在半岛上的土著楚科奇人经常使用驯鹿来运送人和货物。一对驯鹿每天可以轻松地拖运数百磅的货物几个小时。除了在寒冷气温下具有令人印象深刻的耐力外，驯鹿主要通过挖掘雪和吃地衣来进食，这是雪橇犬和马都做不到的。
Historical documents indicate that the Billings expedition enlisted Chukchi people to manage and care for the reindeer they used, with some accounts suggesting that the explorers used dozens of reindeer at times. While reindeer were mainly used to haul sleds, Chukchi people likely rode them as well.
历史文献表明，比林斯探险队招募了楚科奇人来管理和照顾他们使用的驯鹿，一些记录表明探险家有时使用了数十头驯鹿。虽然驯鹿主要用来拉雪橇，但楚科奇人可能也骑它们。
Non-Chukchi members of the expedition reportedly experimented with riding reindeer, though their experiments did not always go smoothly. Billings’ secretary and translator Martin Sauer reported using a saddle without stirrups or a bridle and falling “nearly 20 times” after about three hours of travel in his account of the expedition . Not only that, he added, but the saddle “at first, causes astonishing pain to the thighs.”
据报道，探险队的非楚科奇成员尝试骑驯鹿，尽管他们的实验并不总是顺利。比林斯的秘书兼翻译马丁·绍尔 (Martin Sauer) 在他对这次探险的描述中称，他使用了没有马镫或缰绳的马鞍，在大约三个小时的旅行后“摔倒了近 20 次”。他补充说，不仅如此，马鞍“一开始会给大腿带来惊人的疼痛”。
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey . Story by Adam Voiland.
NASA 地球观测站图像，由 Michala Garrison 拍摄，使用美国地质调查局的陆地卫星数据。亚当·沃伊兰的故事。