Red River Flooding Seen From Space

LiveScience Staff

Date: 23 March 2010 Time: 08:50 AM ET

Flooding in North Dakota is seen in this false-color image taken March 21, 2010. It shows water as blue and vegetation as green. Fallow fields, bare ground, and paved surfaces appear in shades of brown.
CREDIT: NASA/Earth Observing-1 satellite

On March 21, the Red River crested at 36.99 feet (11.27 meters), according to the National Weather Service. NASA has looked down on the flooding from space.

It was not the worst flooding ever. The river's crest was about 4 feet (1 meter) below 2009’s record crest, according to news reports. Dykes and sandbags spared Fargo, North Dakota. But north of the town, the fields were flooded.

The new false-color image shows water as blue and vegetation as green. Fallow fields, bare ground, and paved surfaces appear in shades of brown. In fact the water was murky brown and hard to distinguish from dirt in the true-color satellite image.

The picture was made from data collected March 21, 2010 by NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

The Sheyenne, Red, and Buffalo Rivers all flow through the area pictured.