Monsoon rains combined with a cyclone-induced downpour flooded southern India in late October 2005. On October 30, the Associated Press reported that 90 people died during the last week of October as a result of flooding in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Although thick clouds still covered the region, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured glimpses of flooding along India’s southeastern shore in Andhra Pradesh on October 29, 2005, left. In these false-color images, water is black and blue, though sunlight reflecting off the Penner River makes it appear brown in the October 6 image, right. Clouds are pale blue and white, and vegetation is bright green. In comparison to October 6, the October 29 image shows extensive flooding along the coast.
The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of southern India at a variety of resolutions.
NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
