Status Report

NASA MODIS Image of the Day: June 26, 2009 – Floods from Cyclone Aila in India and Bangladesh

By SpaceRef Editor
June 26, 2009
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NASA MODIS Image of the Day: June 26, 2009 – Floods from Cyclone Aila in India and Bangladesh
NASA MODIS Image of the Day: June 26, 2009 - Floods from Cyclone Aila in India and Bangladesh

Images

Cyclone Ailia was not a strong storm, but its heavy rains and storm surges were enough to swamp the Mouths of the Ganges River in Bangladesh and India.

Some islands in the Bay of Bengal and the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans region were inundated and still cut off from relief and rescue workers as of May 29, 2009.

Clean drinking water was an acute problem: tidal surges continued to wash salty water inland over damaged levees, and salt water cannot be decontaminated with regular water purification tablets, according to reports from BBC news. This pair of images from the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the flooding on May 28, 2009 (main image), compared to the conditions on May 11 (secondary image that you will see if you run your mouse over the main image), prior to the storm. Made from a combination of visible, shortwave-, and near-infrared light, the image highlights standing water, which appears blue. Vegetation is neon green, and bare ground is tan. Clouds are light blue or white. Even prior to the storm, pockets of standing water appear in the Sundarbans and other low-lying areas; the first storms of the rainy season (generally June-September) may have already begun. But a dramatic increase in flooded areas is obvious in the post-storm image, despite the patchy clouds. Distributaries in the Sundarbans are wider and coastal areas of Orissa state (lower left) and West Bengal state (northeast of Orissa) in India were pale blue, rather than the light tan they were in the pre-storm image.

SpaceRef staff editor.