Ongoing torrential rain continues to fuel floods in southern Asia. The Brahmaputra River in India and Bangladesh is flowing at dangerously high levels, and has claimed scores of villages and lives. As of July 20, the death toll stood at 93 in Bangladesh and 277 in India. Well over 30 million people have been affected by this year’s floods. For more information about the flood situation, visit Relief Web, sponsored by the United Nations.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this false-color image of the rising river waters on July 22, 2004. The dark blue waters aren’t the only sign of flooding: darker green areas along the river are probably saturated with water. The bright white streak along the left edge of the image was formed when MODIS captured the reflection of the sun off of water on the ground. In this image, vegetation is bright green, clouds are light blue, and water is dark blue.
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NASA image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
