Dark blue water blanketed the land surrounding the Gulf of Martaban in southern Myanmar when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top image on May 8, 2007. According to the Dartmouth Flood Observatory, water up to a meter (3.3 feet) in depth covered 16 townships around the capital city of Yangon, destroying crops and houses. The floods came in the wake of the heaviest rain in decades. In this image, the floods are so extensive that the channels of the Yangon and Ayeyarwady Rivers and the shores of the Gulf of Martaban are indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape. The image was made with infrared and visible light, which makes water appear dark blue or black. Sediment turns the water pale blue. Clouds are turquoise and white, plant-covered land is green, and bare earth is tan-pink.
NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
