Typhoon Melor swept through the northern Philippines on November 1, 2003, bringing 85 mile-per-hour winds and up to six inches of rain to the northeastern shores of Luzon. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite captured this image of the storm leaving the island on November 2, 2003. Flooding can clearly be seen in its wake. The Cargayan River, swollen and muddy with the storm’s run-off, is shown in the inset. According to news reports, at least four people died in the floods.
The TRMM-based, near-real-time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA), at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, shows the rainfall totals associated with Melor’s passage. The storm dumped more than 6 inches of rain over much of the northeastern part of the island along the coastline and east of the Cordillera Central Mountains.
The high resolution image provided above is at MODIS’ maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters per pixel.
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Image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
