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Images of Andaman Sea and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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Floods in Myanmar
| Title |
Floods in Myanmar |
| Description |
Myanmar's Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River was several times larger than its dry-season extent when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on September 26, 2007. Like many large rivers, the Ayeyarwady splits into multiple small branches (distributaries) in its delta before draining into the Andaman Sea. This image shows at least three such distributaries. Water in this false-color image is black, though the water in the river channels is colored blue by sediment. Towering rain clouds, turquoise blue in this image, still hang over the river. Lower, warmer clouds are white, and the plant-covered land is bright green. The lower image shows the river on May 28, 2007, during the dry season. Unusually heavy seasonal rains from early July through September brought flooding along the length of the Ayeyarwady. By August 29, more than 97,500 people had been affected by floods in Myanmar, said the International Federation of Red and Red Crescent Societies. [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/JOPA-76JBTT?OpenDocument ] Of those affected, 61,689 were in the Ayeyarwady Division, which encompasses the area shown in this image. The river was still flooded on September 26, as this image shows. According to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology [ http://www.dmh.gov.mm/w_flood.cfm?id=115 ] in the government of Myanmar, some stretches of the Ayeryarwady River were above their "danger levels" on September 24. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, which provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_Myanmar/2007269 ] of Myanmar. |
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Floods in Myanmar
| Title |
Floods in Myanmar |
| Description |
Myanmar's Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River was several times larger than its dry-season extent when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on September 26, 2007. Like many large rivers, the Ayeyarwady splits into multiple small branches (distributaries) in its delta before draining into the Andaman Sea. This image shows at least three such distributaries. Water in this false-color image is black, though the water in the river channels is colored blue by sediment. Towering rain clouds, turquoise blue in this image, still hang over the river. Lower, warmer clouds are white, and the plant-covered land is bright green. The lower image shows the river on May 28, 2007, during the dry season. Unusually heavy seasonal rains from early July through September brought flooding along the length of the Ayeyarwady. By August 29, more than 97,500 people had been affected by floods in Myanmar, said the International Federation of Red and Red Crescent Societies. [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/JOPA-76JBTT?OpenDocument ] Of those affected, 61,689 were in the Ayeyarwady Division, which encompasses the area shown in this image. The river was still flooded on September 26, as this image shows. According to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology [ http://www.dmh.gov.mm/w_flood.cfm?id=115 ] in the government of Myanmar, some stretches of the Ayeryarwady River were above their "danger levels" on September 24. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC, which provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_Myanmar/2007269 ] of Myanmar. |
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Floods in Myanmar (Burma)
| Title |
Floods in Myanmar (Burma) |
| Description |
With winds near 210 kilometers per hour (130 miles per hour), powerful Cyclone Mala [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13533 ] swept ashore over Myanmar (Burma) late on April 28, 2006. The storm inundated the Southeast Asian country with heavy rain and left widespread flooding in its wake. The wetlands surrounding the mouths of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River were still dark blue and black with water when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on the afternoon of April 30. Just a week earlier (lower image), the region had been dry, with water confined to the channels cut by the river as it drains into the Andaman Sea. The land is tan, with patches of green where plants are growing. Light clouds, blue and white in the false-color images, drift over the region. On April 30, the wetlands brimmed with water brought by the storm. Offshore, the ocean is milky blue and green where sediment carried by draining flood water has washed into the sea. Additional flooding can be seen farther north along the Ayeyarwady in the large image. According to the Myanmar state media, one person died and 21 others were injured in the storm. The large images provided above have a resolution of 250 meters per pixel, MODIS' maximum resolution. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_Myanmar/2006120 ] of Myanmar in several resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in Myanmar (Burma)
| Title |
Floods in Myanmar (Burma) |
| Description |
With winds near 210 kilometers per hour (130 miles per hour), powerful Cyclone Mala [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13533 ] swept ashore over Myanmar (Burma) late on April 28, 2006. The storm inundated the Southeast Asian country with heavy rain and left widespread flooding in its wake. The wetlands surrounding the mouths of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River were still dark blue and black with water when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image on the afternoon of April 30. Just a week earlier (lower image), the region had been dry, with water confined to the channels cut by the river as it drains into the Andaman Sea. The land is tan, with patches of green where plants are growing. Light clouds, blue and white in the false-color images, drift over the region. On April 30, the wetlands brimmed with water brought by the storm. Offshore, the ocean is milky blue and green where sediment carried by draining flood water has washed into the sea. Additional flooding can be seen farther north along the Ayeyarwady in the large image. According to the Myanmar state media, one person died and 21 others were injured in the storm. The large images provided above have a resolution of 250 meters per pixel, MODIS' maximum resolution. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_Myanmar/2006120 ] of Myanmar in several resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Barren Island Volcano
| Title |
Barren Island Volcano |
| Description |
The Barren Island Volcano sent a plume of volcanic ash and steam toward the northeast over the Andaman Sea on April 5, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took this picture the same day. This image shows Barren Island at Aqua's full 250-meter resolution, available on the MODIS Rapid Response [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2006095-0405/BarrenIsland.A2006095.0720 ] site. In this image, the volcanic plume dissipates as it moves away from the tiny island. The white dots southwest of the volcano are clouds. The red outline around the volcano's summit is a thermal anomaly, showing where the satellite sensor picked up especially warm surface temperatures. Just three kilometers wide, with a two-kilometer-wide caldera, Barren Island is the summit of a volcano that rises about 2,250 meters from the sea floor, poking 354 meters above the water line. About 135 kilometers northeast of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, the volcanic island is uninhabited. It is the only historically active volcano in the north-south volcanic arc between Sumatra and Myanmar (Burma). In mid-March 2006, news reports assured India's citizens that the volcano's activity in early 2006 was no cause for alarm as seismologists surmised that it did not indicate an increased risk of earthquakes. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ]Goddard Space Flight Center |
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Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
| Title |
Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis |
| Description |
*Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis*, Nearly three weeks after an earthquake triggered the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004, satellite analysis continues to illustrate the magnitude of the disaster. This pair of ASTER images contrasts before and after views of a portion of the western coastline of Thailand in the Phang-Nga province, about 50 kilometers north of the island of Phuket. In these images, vegetation is dark red, while bare earth is grey. On December 31, five days after the waves swept ashore, large sections of the shoreline are grey, stripped of vegetation or covered in mud and sand. Water has broken through several places along the northern beach. Tiny fingers of blue water slice into the land where no inlet existed in the image on the right. Like Phuket, this region of coastline is a tourist mecca, and beachfront on the Andaman Sea (left edge of both images) is dotted with golf courses, resorts, and other tourist-centered development, as well as national marine and terrestrial parks, including the Khao Lak-lam Ru National Park. Most of the land in the park is found in the mountainous region away from the shore, just to the south of the center of the images. However, the park?s terrain also includes the forest-covered cape that extends westward into the Andaman Sea. The image acquired before the tsunami is actually a composite of two separate ASTER images. The left third of the image was acquired on November 15, 2002, while the right two-thirds of the image was taken on February 28, 2003. Neither scene covered the same area as the December 31 image, but by combining the two, a comparison image can be made. The comparison shows an interesting pattern of damage along the coast. It is the long, smoothly curving beaches that have been devastated by the tsunami, not the land that juts into the ocean. Several factors probably contributed to this pattern. First, elevation is certainly a factor. The headland in the center of the image is probably a high rocky point that would not be easily inundated by a large wave. The wrinkle of inland mountains appears to curve out to the coast between the two damaged beaches. The beaches, on the other hand, probably have a low elevation that gently slopes toward the ocean, allowing any water that comes ashore to sweep further inland. Second, the headland itself may have contributed to the damage on its flanks. Waves approaching the point would tend to be diffracted, or broken up, sending additional energy into the beaches on either side of the point. This would amplify the waves along the beaches. By the same principle, the concave shape of the beach to the south focuses wave energy and wave run-up. Another contributing factor to the pattern of damage seen here is ocean bathymetry, the shape and depth of the ocean floor. Tsunami height and run-out (the horizontal distance the wave travels) are larger where the ocean floor has a gentle slope. Rocky coastlines that drop into deep ocean are not as affected. Finally,, vegetation patterns may have altered the type of damage the wave created when it came ashore. The forested cape appears to be untouched, possibly because the trees served as a break. The developed beach land probably had less dense vegetation to cushion the wave?s impact. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Image interpretation courtesy Tim Gubbels, SSAI. |
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Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis
| Title |
Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis |
| Description |
*Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis*, Nearly three weeks after an earthquake triggered the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004, satellite analysis continues to illustrate the magnitude of the disaster. This pair of ASTER images contrasts before and after views of a portion of the western coastline of Thailand in the Phang-Nga province, about 50 kilometers north of the island of Phuket. In these images, vegetation is dark red, while bare earth is grey. On December 31, five days after the waves swept ashore, large sections of the shoreline are grey, stripped of vegetation or covered in mud and sand. Water has broken through several places along the northern beach. Tiny fingers of blue water slice into the land where no inlet existed in the image on the right. Like Phuket, this region of coastline is a tourist mecca, and beachfront on the Andaman Sea (left edge of both images) is dotted with golf courses, resorts, and other tourist-centered development, as well as national marine and terrestrial parks, including the Khao Lak-lam Ru National Park. Most of the land in the park is found in the mountainous region away from the shore, just to the south of the center of the images. However, the park?s terrain also includes the forest-covered cape that extends westward into the Andaman Sea. The image acquired before the tsunami is actually a composite of two separate ASTER images. The left third of the image was acquired on November 15, 2002, while the right two-thirds of the image was taken on February 28, 2003. Neither scene covered the same area as the December 31 image, but by combining the two, a comparison image can be made. The comparison shows an interesting pattern of damage along the coast. It is the long, smoothly curving beaches that have been devastated by the tsunami, not the land that juts into the ocean. Several factors probably contributed to this pattern. First, elevation is certainly a factor. The headland in the center of the image is probably a high rocky point that would not be easily inundated by a large wave. The wrinkle of inland mountains appears to curve out to the coast between the two damaged beaches. The beaches, on the other hand, probably have a low elevation that gently slopes toward the ocean, allowing any water that comes ashore to sweep further inland. Second, the headland itself may have contributed to the damage on its flanks. Waves approaching the point would tend to be diffracted, or broken up, sending additional energy into the beaches on either side of the point. This would amplify the waves along the beaches. By the same principle, the concave shape of the beach to the south focuses wave energy and wave run-up. Another contributing factor to the pattern of damage seen here is ocean bathymetry, the shape and depth of the ocean floor. Tsunami height and run-out (the horizontal distance the wave travels) are larger where the ocean floor has a gentle slope. Rocky coastlines that drop into deep ocean are not as affected. Finally,, vegetation patterns may have altered the type of damage the wave created when it came ashore. The forested cape appears to be untouched, possibly because the trees served as a break. The developed beach land probably had less dense vegetation to cushion the wave?s impact. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Image interpretation courtesy Tim Gubbels, SSAI. |
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Eruption on Barren Island
| Title |
Eruption on Barren Island |
| Description |
The volcano on Barren Island erupted on August 24, 2005. A part of India, Barren Island is one of the Andaman Islands, and lies over the fault whose movement caused the tsunami on December 26, 2004. It is a stratovolcano composed of lava, rock fragments, and volcanic ash. On the west side of the island is a caldera formed by an explosive eruption in the Pleistocene era. Two kilometers wide, the caldera takes up the bulk of this tiny island that measures only 3 kilometers across. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image on August 24, 2005. In this image, smoke blows from the volcano eastward over the Andaman Sea toward a bank of clouds. The red outline indicates surface area hotter than its surroundings. NASA image created by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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North Reef Island, Andaman S
…
| Title |
North Reef Island, Andaman Sea |
| Description |
On December 26, 2004, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history struck offshore of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The ocean floor heaved in some places and sank in others, creating catastrophic tsunamis that raced across the Indian Ocean. Hundreds of thousands of people died as the waves struck coastlines from Thailand to Sri Lanka to Somalia. In addition to tsunami damage, satellite images of reefs, islands, and coastlines identified signs of permanent elevation changesinking or upliftalong the fault between the Indo-Australia and Burma plates. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12640 ] In places such as North Reef Island, shown in this pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite, the quake lifted the reefs permanently out of the water. The images use visible and infrared light detected by ASTER to make different land surfaces stand out clearly from one another: water is blue, vegetation is red, coral or bare sand appears white. In the "before" image, from December 2, 2004, the submerged reef creates a bright blue glow around the island. In the "after" image, from February 4, 2005, the white coral stands completely up out of the water. It is even tinged with red, which suggests the exposed coral had died, and algae had colonized it. In the weeks and months after the earthquake, satellite images provided broad coverage of an area where ground-based observations were initially very limited. A team of scientists led by Caltech Ph.D. geology student Aron Meltzner discovered changes in elevation along nearly 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) of the tectonic plate boundary. The images revealed that the earthquake rupture extended 100 kilometers (62 miles) farther north than estimates based on seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) data suggested. The feature article Rise and Fall: Satellites Reveal Full Length of Tsunami-Generating Earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Aceh/aceh.html ] describes how scientists used satellite images to map the length of the earthquake rupture zone. The article includes additional satellite and ground-based images of elevation changes resulting from the 2004 Aceh-Andaman earthquake. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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North Reef Island, Andaman S
…
| Title |
North Reef Island, Andaman Sea |
| Description |
On December 26, 2004, one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history struck offshore of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The ocean floor heaved in some places and sank in others, creating catastrophic tsunamis that raced across the Indian Ocean. Hundreds of thousands of people died as the waves struck coastlines from Thailand to Sri Lanka to Somalia. In addition to tsunami damage, satellite images of reefs, islands, and coastlines identified signs of permanent elevation changesinking or upliftalong the fault between the Indo-Australia and Burma plates. [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12640 ] In places such as North Reef Island, shown in this pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov ] satellite, the quake lifted the reefs permanently out of the water. The images use visible and infrared light detected by ASTER to make different land surfaces stand out clearly from one another: water is blue, vegetation is red, coral or bare sand appears white. In the "before" image, from December 2, 2004, the submerged reef creates a bright blue glow around the island. In the "after" image, from February 4, 2005, the white coral stands completely up out of the water. It is even tinged with red, which suggests the exposed coral had died, and algae had colonized it. In the weeks and months after the earthquake, satellite images provided broad coverage of an area where ground-based observations were initially very limited. A team of scientists led by Caltech Ph.D. geology student Aron Meltzner discovered changes in elevation along nearly 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) of the tectonic plate boundary. The images revealed that the earthquake rupture extended 100 kilometers (62 miles) farther north than estimates based on seismic and Global Positioning System (GPS) data suggested. The feature article Rise and Fall: Satellites Reveal Full Length of Tsunami-Generating Earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Aceh/aceh.html ] describes how scientists used satellite images to map the length of the earthquake rupture zone. The article includes additional satellite and ground-based images of elevation changes resulting from the 2004 Aceh-Andaman earthquake. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] |
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Fires in Southeast Asia
| Title |
Fires in Southeast Asia |
| Description |
The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of fires burning in Southeast Asia on April 3, 2003. The fires, outlined in red, are spread very heavily throughout eastern Myanmar (center) and are likely agricultural in origin. Fire is often used to clear fields and pasture to prepare for new plant growth, though the smoke from these fires adversely affects local air quality. In this image, winds blow the grayish-blue smoke to the east over neighboring countries and towards the Gulf of Tonking (right edge) and the South China Sea (not visible). Clockwise from top left, the countries shown are India, Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Bangladesh (upper left edge). To the southwest of Myanmar is the Bay of Bengal, due south is the Andaman Sea. The high-resolution image provided above is 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at MODIS' maximum spatial resolution of 250 meters. Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC |
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Fires in Southeast Asia
| Title |
Fires in Southeast Asia |
| Description |
Scores of fires were burning across Southeast Asia on March 9, 2005, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite captured this image. Active fires detected by MODIS have been marked with red dots. The agricultural burning season is a time of increased haze across the region. In this image, haze is widespread, giving the whole scene a softened look. An especially thick area of smoke runs diagonally through the center of the scene, dirtying the clouds at upper right and spreading over the Andaman Sea at lower left. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtsey of the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Floods in Myanmar: Natural H
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
Myanmar_AMO_2007269
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-09-26 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
Myanmar_AMO_2007269 |
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Barren Island Volcano: Natur
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The Barren Island Volcano se
…
barren_amo_2006095
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2006-04-05 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
barren_amo_2006095 |
|
Fires in Southeast Asia: Nat
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The MODIS instrument aboard
…
SEAsia.AMOA2003093
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2003-04-03 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
SEAsia.AMOA2003093 |
|
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