Floods in Pakistan and Iran (false color) - related image preview

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Floods in Pakistan and Iran (false color)

Heavy rain and snow hammered Pakistan in the first two weeks of February 2005, leaving more than 300 people dead as a result of floods and avalanches throughout the country. Some of the deaths occurred in southwestern Pakistan, where a week of rain taxed river and irrigation systems. This image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on February 11, 2005, shows streaks of blue floodwater all along the coast.

The most deadly floods swept through the region around the coastal city of Pasni when an irrigation dam burst on February 10, washing away several villages and flooding the city with water. Brilliant blue lines trace out the contours of the flood water on the following day. To the west, the Dasht River is dramatically flooded, having expanded from a thin green line that was barely visible on February 6 to a sprawling blue wetland.

If this scene were depicted in true color, as a human eye would see it, the mud-laden flood water would blend with the tan desert landscape. To make the flood water more visible, the image is in false color, with sediment-filled water represented in blue, while deeper ocean water is black. The bare or sparsely vegetated land is yellow, and the clouds are white and light purple.


Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published February 16, 2005
Data acquired February 11, 2005

Source:
Aqua > MODIS
Collections:
MODIS Rapid Response
Visible Earth