NASA MODIS Image of the Day: June 16, 2008 – Spring Floods in Siberia
May brought warming temperatures and spring floods to Siberia.
The MODIS on the Aqua satellite captured the main image of the floods on the Lena River on May 21, 2008.
If you move your mouse over the image, you will see one taken ten days earlier, on May 11. The images are in false color to increase the contrast between liquid and frozen water. Snow and ice are turquoise. Liquid water is black. In the days that passed between the two images, the snow disappeared everywhere but the Verkhoyanskiy Mountain Range. Bright green vegetation has taken its place. The main channel of the Lena River remains frozen, however, and this is causing floods. Liquid water surrounds the icy center of the north-flowing river, pooling along the river’s banks. The Lena’s tributaries are also flooded. With ice restricting the flow of water in the Lena, water in the tributaries has no where to go. In the large image, downstream sections of the Lena River are swollen. The river and its tributaries will remain flooded until spring melts the ice on the river.
