Myanmar Flooding Seen From Space

Flooding is difficult to capture in pictures, even from satellites, particularly when the water is muddy. NASA used both visible and infrared light to make floodwaters more obvious.

The before and after views of the Myanmar coast and Irrawaddy Delta, where much of the devastation occurred, were generated by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite. Water is blue or nearly black, vegetation is bright green, bare ground is tan and clouds are white or light blue.

An image from April 15, 2008, shows dark blue or nearly black water that sharply outlines the shore, the Irrawaddy River (which flows south through the left-hand side of the image). The wetlands near the shore are a deep blue green. Cyclone Nargis came ashore across the Mouths of the Irrawaddy and followed the coastline northeast.

The entire coastal plain is flooded in an image taken on May 5. Here, much of Myanmar is seen as a combination of blue water and turquoise muddy runoff into the Gulf of Martaban. Previously tan areas without vegetation are flooded, such as the 4-million population city of Yangon. The cyclone's path is clearly visible as it moved northeast along the coast from the Mouths of the Irrawaddy. Light blue or white clouds float above the flooded landscape.

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