



February 10-March 2, 2022
Floods Swamp Eastern Australia
Several days of torrential rains have caused major floods in eastern Australia. Some of the most severe flooding inundated coastal towns in Queensland and New South Wales. Muddy floodwaters and plumes of suspended sediment at river mouths were visible through scattered cloud cover on March 2, 2022, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image. For comparison, the same area is shown on February 10, 2022, in a MODIS image acquired by the Terra satellite.
References & Resources
- Bureau of Meteorology (2022, March 1) Parts of north-east NSW and south-east Qld are experiencing major flooding after heavy multi-day rainfall. Accessed March 2, 2022.
- Reuters (2022, March 2) Australia evacuates tens of thousands as heavy rains threaten Sydney. Accessed March 2, 2022.
- The Sydney Morning Herald (2022, March 2) Lismore left devastated from floodwaters. Accessed March 2, 2022.
- The Washington Post (2022, March 1) Cities submerged, at least 10 dead in Australian floods. Accessed March 2, 2022.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview . Caption by Adam Voiland.












