Three days of heavy rain caused widespread flooding across China’s Jiangxi Province in early June 2007. The floods destroyed about 2,000 houses, and caused an economic loss of approximately $13 million, reported Reuters. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the top image of flooding around Poyang Lake, a reservoir in northern Jiangxi, on June 6, 2007. Compared to conditions a few weeks earlier, on May 19 (lower image), the reservoir is swollen, and its shores have been pushed out by several kilometres. Both images were made with a combination of infrared and visible light, which makes water appear black or dark blue. Plant-covered land is bright green, bare earth is tan, and clouds are light blue and white. Similar images as well as photo-like images of southeast China are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System on a daily basis.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
