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Images of Khartoum and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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Floods in Sudan
| Title |
Floods in Sudan |
| Description |
Nestled between the While Nile and the Blue Nile Rivers, Khartoum was just one place hit by floods when heavy rain fell over central, eastern, and southeastern Sudan starting on July 8, 2007. The capital city appeared to be surrounded by water on July 9, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image. The lower image, taken just two days earlier, shows no sign of flooding. In these images, water is dark blue, the color of the White Nile. Flood-soaked land or mud-tainted water is a lighter shade of blue. Bright green vegetation lines the rivers, an oasis in an otherwise plant-free or sparsely vegetated tan-pink landscape. Cities are typically gray, but the contrast between the desert and city surface isn't great enough for Khartoum to be readily visible in the images. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LRON-74YHN4?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ]), about 20 people had died in floods across Sudan between July 8 and July 10, and 15,000 houses were destroyed. One of the most seriously impacted regions was Umdowoban, located on the eastern outskirts of Khartoum, where extensive flooding is evident in the top image. The Government of Sudan [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-74ZGFG?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ] warned that additional heavy rain and floods were likely through at least July 13. 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/?NAfrica_2_07 ] of Sudan. |
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Floods in Sudan
| Title |
Floods in Sudan |
| Description |
Nestled between the While Nile and the Blue Nile Rivers, Khartoum was just one place hit by floods when heavy rain fell over central, eastern, and southeastern Sudan starting on July 8, 2007. The capital city appeared to be surrounded by water on July 9, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured the top image. The lower image, taken just two days earlier, shows no sign of flooding. In these images, water is dark blue, the color of the White Nile. Flood-soaked land or mud-tainted water is a lighter shade of blue. Bright green vegetation lines the rivers, an oasis in an otherwise plant-free or sparsely vegetated tan-pink landscape. Cities are typically gray, but the contrast between the desert and city surface isn't great enough for Khartoum to be readily visible in the images. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LRON-74YHN4?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ]), about 20 people had died in floods across Sudan between July 8 and July 10, and 15,000 houses were destroyed. One of the most seriously impacted regions was Umdowoban, located on the eastern outskirts of Khartoum, where extensive flooding is evident in the top image. The Government of Sudan [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/LSGZ-74ZGFG?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ] warned that additional heavy rain and floods were likely through at least July 13. 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/?NAfrica_2_07 ] of Sudan. |
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Floods in Sudan
| Title |
Floods in Sudan |
| Description |
Unusually heavy wet-season rains triggered destructive floods throughout Sudan in July and August 2007. As of August 22, the floods had killed 89, affected at least 365,000 people, and destroyed more than 70,000 homes, reported Reuters. [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-76BDM8?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ] The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite observed high water levels on the White Nile River south of Khartoum on August 22. In the two months that passed between June 24, when the right image was taken, and August 22, when the left image was taken, the river had swollen considerably. In these false-color images, water is dark blue. Lighter blue puddles surrounding the White Nile in the left image are probably patches of muddy soil or shallow pools of sediment-saturated water. In addition to causing floods, the rain has nourished plants. The landscape has gone from arid tan-pink to brilliant green. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?NAfrica_2_07/2007234 ] tracking the change through July and August are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in Sudan
| Title |
Floods in Sudan |
| Description |
Unusually heavy wet-season rains triggered destructive floods throughout Sudan in July and August 2007. As of August 22, the floods had killed 89, affected at least 365,000 people, and destroyed more than 70,000 homes, reported Reuters. [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-76BDM8?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ] The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) flying on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite observed high water levels on the White Nile River south of Khartoum on August 22. In the two months that passed between June 24, when the right image was taken, and August 22, when the left image was taken, the river had swollen considerably. In these false-color images, water is dark blue. Lighter blue puddles surrounding the White Nile in the left image are probably patches of muddy soil or shallow pools of sediment-saturated water. In addition to causing floods, the rain has nourished plants. The landscape has gone from arid tan-pink to brilliant green. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?NAfrica_2_07/2007234 ] tracking the change through July and August are available from the MODIS Rapid Response System. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in Sudan
| Title |
Floods in Sudan |
| Description |
Though flooding occurs every year in the African country of Sudan, 2007 brought unusually extreme floods that affected at least 400,000 people as of August 29, reported the United Nations. [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/YSAR-76JMJK?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000093-SDN ] Apart from destroying buildings, crops, and land, the swollen rivers and pools of standing water increase the risk of water-borne disease such as cholera, acute watery diarrhea, and malaria, said the United Nations. This photo-like image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite on August 29, 2007, shows flooding around the capital city of Khartoum, the tan-gray area nestled between the converging Blue and White Nile Rivers. To the south, sunlight reflecting off the surface of the water has turned the Blue Nile River silvery white, making it stand out from the surrounding land. Brilliant flecks of silver in the landscape between the two rivers are created by light reflecting off standing water or some other bright surface. The sunlight also highlights the intricate network of canals that run like arteries through squares of green agriculture. In the west, the White Nile River paints a wide, white-brown ribbon down the landscape. The river is several times wider than it is during the dry season, as a comparison with a cloud-free image [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?NAfrica_2_07/2007172/NAfrica_2_07.2007172.terra ] from June 2007 reveals. (The area shown here is in the lower-left corner of the image.) As long as human civilization has clung to the fertile banks of the Nile River, the yearly flood cycle has regulated life. Today, the river is tamed by dams in southern Egypt so that only its upper reaches and its tributaries, the White and Blue Nile Rivers, still rise and fall with the annual rainy season in the Ethiopian highlands. Most of the flood water on the Nile typically comes from the Blue Nile River, the tributary that flows out of Ethiopia, but in this image, it is the White Nile River that appears most flooded. The floods on the White Nile most often arise when high water on the Blue Nile blocks the flow of water from the White Nile into the Nile River. Unable to continue flowing freely downstream, the White Nile pools behind the convergence point, as shown here. Another sign of flooding in the image is the addition of green to the land. Even beyond the irrigated land between the two rivers, the arid orange landscape is brushed with green where seasonal rivers have nourished new plants. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Floods in Sudan: Natural Haz
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Though flooding occurs every
…
Khartoum_TMO_2007241
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-08-28 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
Khartoum_TMO_2007241 |
|
Floods in Sudan: Natural Haz
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
WhiteNile_TMO_2007234
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-08-22 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
WhiteNile_TMO_2007234 |
|
Floods in Sudan: Natural Haz
…
nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
Sudan_TMO_2007190
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-07-09 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
Sudan_TMO_2007190 |
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Nile River Fluctuations Near
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PIA03420
Sol (our sun)
Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroR
…
| Title |
Nile River Fluctuations Near Khartoum, Sudan |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Throughout history, the rising and falling waters of the mighty Nile River have directly impacted the lives of the people who live along its banks. These images of the area around Sudan's capital city of Khartoum capture the river's dynamic nature. Acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer's nadir (vertical-viewing) camera, they display the extent of the Nile waters before and after the onset of the rainy seasons of 2000 (top pair) and 2001 (bottom pair). The images are displayed in "false color", using the camera's near-infrared, green, and blue bands. With this particular spectral combination, water appears in shades of blue and turquoise, and highly vegetated areas show up as bright red. Originating in Uganda and Ethiopia, respectively, the waters of the White Nile (western branch) and Blue Nile (eastern branch) converge at Khartoum (about half-way between image center and the left-hand side), and continue to flow northward as the Great Nile. Although the most obvious feature in these images is the increased width of the White Nile between spring and summer, careful inspection shows that the Great Nile is at its widest in August 2001 (note in particular the area between the clouds near the top of this panel). Heavy rains in the Blue Nile catchment area of the Ethiopian highlands led to a rapid overflow of the river's floodwaters into the main stream of the Great Nile, leading to extensive flooding, the worst effects of which occurred north of Khartoum. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, tens of thousands of people have fled their homes, and the number of people in need of urgent food assistance in Sudan, estimated at three million earlier in the year, was likely to increase with the onset of these floods. South of the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile, the area of a cross-hatched appearance is the irrigated plain of El Gezira. The Gezira irrigation scheme uses water from the Makwar Dam (now called the Sennar Dam), located across the Blue Nile south of Khartoum. Among the main agricultural products of this region are cotton, millet, peanuts and fodder crops. Overall prospects for Sudan's 2001 grain crop were already poor prior to the flooding due to a late start of the rainy season in parts of the country. Following two consecutive years of serious drought, precipitation arrived too late to save the grain harvest that normally begins in late August. Lower harvests for the past two years coupled with depletion of stocks have led to a rise in cereal prices, reducing access to food for the Sudan's poorer citizens, already suffering from the effects of Africa's longest running civil war. Each of these images represents an area of about 130 kilometers x 150 kilometers. The data were obtained during Terra orbits 1922, 3553, 7281, and 8912. MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra, satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. For more information: http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov ] |
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