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Images of Uganda and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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Floods in Uganda
| Title |
Floods in Uganda |
| Description |
Flooded rivers in Central Uganda cut off access to some northern and eastern sections of the country in mid-September 2007, reported the Monitor, a Kampala (Uganda) news service, on September 18. Like many other countries in western, central, and eastern Africa, Uganda faced severe flooding as a result of unusually heavy rains from July through September. By September 18, the floods had killed at least 10 and affected about 300,000 people in Uganda, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-776J4Z?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000138-UGA ]). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of the most flooded part of Uganda on September 18. The image on the right was taken on May 18 and shows the region under normal conditions. The images were made with infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water is black or dark blue, and plant-covered land is green. Clouds are light blue and white. Floods widen the rivers flowing into Lake Bisina in the September image. Water pools in the U-shaped bends of the Kelim River east of the lake, and the Okok and Okere Rivers to the north are swollen. Traces of black define smaller rivers that weren't visible in May. In addition to causing the floods shown here, the unrelenting rain destroyed up to 90 percent of the crops in some regions and caused many traditional mud-brick homes to collapse, said OCHA. The floods also contaminated water supplies, increasing the potential for an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera. Uganda was just of one many African countries that were flooded in September 2007. As many as 17 countries and more than a million people were affected by flooding across Africa, reported BBC News on September 17. Images of flood areas in Nigeria, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14532 ] Ghana, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14528 ] Senegal, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14526 ] Mali, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14534 ] and Sudan [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14499 ] are available on the Earth Observatory. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/ ] of Africa's Sahel region, where the floods were concentrated, 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 Uganda
| Title |
Floods in Uganda |
| Description |
Flooded rivers in Central Uganda cut off access to some northern and eastern sections of the country in mid-September 2007, reported the Monitor, a Kampala (Uganda) news service, on September 18. Like many other countries in western, central, and eastern Africa, Uganda faced severe flooding as a result of unusually heavy rains from July through September. By September 18, the floods had killed at least 10 and affected about 300,000 people in Uganda, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-776J4Z?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000138-UGA ]). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of the most flooded part of Uganda on September 18. The image on the right was taken on May 18 and shows the region under normal conditions. The images were made with infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water is black or dark blue, and plant-covered land is green. Clouds are light blue and white. Floods widen the rivers flowing into Lake Bisina in the September image. Water pools in the U-shaped bends of the Kelim River east of the lake, and the Okok and Okere Rivers to the north are swollen. Traces of black define smaller rivers that weren't visible in May. In addition to causing the floods shown here, the unrelenting rain destroyed up to 90 percent of the crops in some regions and caused many traditional mud-brick homes to collapse, said OCHA. The floods also contaminated water supplies, increasing the potential for an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera. Uganda was just of one many African countries that were flooded in September 2007. As many as 17 countries and more than a million people were affected by flooding across Africa, reported BBC News on September 17. Images of flood areas in Nigeria, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14532 ] Ghana, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14528 ] Senegal, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14526 ] Mali, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14534 ] and Sudan [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14499 ] are available on the Earth Observatory. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/ ] of Africa's Sahel region, where the floods were concentrated, 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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Congo Volcanoes erupt
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Congo Volcanoes erupt |
| Description |
The borderland between Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda contains eight volcanoes, including Mount Nyamulagira and Mount Nyiragongo, which were both erupting on May 25, 2004. The volcanoes are both located north of Lake Kivu in Virunga National Park. The dense tropical forests of the park are home to endangered mountain gorillas. The African Wildlife Foundation [ http://www.awf.org/news/17081 ] does not believe that the eruptions will threaten the gorillas? habitat, but cautions that ash may contaminate drinking water sources and food crops, forcing local people to turn to the park for material. Mount Nyamulagira is Africa?s most active volcano. Its neighbor 14 kilometers (9 miles) to the northwest, Nyiragongo has the world?s fastest flowing lava. In 2002, 500,000 people in Goma were displaced when Nyiragongo erupted. Neither of this week?s eruptions have been reported to have caused damage, though ash falls have been reported within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of the volcanoes. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] (MODIS) on NASA?s Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of the eruptions on May 25, 2004. The large image shows the scene in true color. Red dots around Mount Nyiragongo indicate a thermal anomaly, and may be flowing lava or fires near the volcano. The inset shows the scene immediately around the volcanoes in false color to differentiate between cloud and the aerosol plumes. The plumes, which are a darker orange than the surrounding clouds, may be ash and steam or smoke from the fires around the volcanoes. Vegetation is dark green. The high-resolution image shows the scene in natural color at MODIS? maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. NASA image courtesy Jesse Allen, based on data from the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at GSFC |
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Drought in East Africa
| Title |
Drought in East Africa |
| Description |
Dry, drought-withered vegetation rings Lake Victoria in this vegetation anomaly image. The image shows large-scale plant health in eastern Africa. Regions that are drier than they were between 2000 and 2004 are brown, while areas with thicker, healthier vegetation are green. As the image illustrates, many countries in eastern Africa have been plunged into drought in recent months. In this region, drought means more than economic loss, for many it means famine. From Tanzania to Uganda, millions are facing food shortages as the drought wears on. Relief Web reports that up to 30,000 are hungry in northern Tanzania, which has been dry for the past two years. Covered with dark brown, this region is also the most obviously stressed area in the above image. The image also correlates with reports of widespread food shortages in northern Burundi, a country where as many as two million are hungry, and southern Uganda, where 600,000 require food aid. Relief may be in sight, however, by March 23, 2005, the first rains of the rainy season had begun to fall east of Lake Victoria. If the rains continue, the long rainy season could provide the moisture needed to nourish crops during the coming growing season. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] and Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellites collected the data to generate this image between February 18 and March 5, 2005, before the rains started. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the joint Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA?s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. More data and information about this joint project is available at Satellite Information for Agricultural Monitoring [ http://tripwire.geog.umd.edu/usda/ ]. |
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Seasonal Rain Floods the Sah
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| Title |
Seasonal Rain Floods the Sahel |
| Description |
Africa's Sahel region, a margin of semi-arid grassland around the southern limit of the Sahara Desert, gets most of its rainfall between June and September when the band of near-perpetual thunderstorms [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=4028 ] that hover around the equator shifts north. In 2007, the final months of the rainy season brought unusually heavy rainfall to much of the Sahel and the tropical savannas to its south, causing floods in river basins from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean coasts of the continent. This image illustrates how extensive the extreme rainfall was. The image was made with data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM [ http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite between August 20 and September 21, 2007. The average daily totals recorded during this period are compared with average rainfall totals recorded during the same period since TRMM's launch in 1997. Regions that received more rain per day than average are blue and green, while places that received less rain are yellow to red. Most of the southern Sahel received more rain per day than average in August and September. Some places, marked with pale blue, got as much as 15 millimeters more rain than average per day. The northern Sahel, by contrast, was slightly drier than average, as indicated by its pale yellow tint. The unusually heavy rains caused flooding in as many as 17 countries and affected more than a million people across Africa, reported BBC News on September 17. Some of the flooded countries are labeled in this image. Images of flood areas in Nigeria, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14532 ] Ghana, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14528 ] Senegal, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14526 ] Mali, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14534 ] Uganda, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14536 ] Chad, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14538 ] and Sudan [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14499 ] are available on the Earth Observatory. For those areas that escaped flooding, the rains were beneficial, since farmers in the Sahel rely on rain to water their crops, reported the Famine Early Warning System Network on September 19. Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) |
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Solar Eclipse over Africa
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Solar Eclipse over Africa |
| Description |
Eastern Africa was cloaked in darkness when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite caught this image on October 3, 2005. The inky blackness that covers much of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and parts of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in this image was caused when the Moon crossed in front of the Sun in an annular solar eclipse. During such an eclipse, the Sun is visible as a fiery circle around the black disk of the moon. In the dimness beneath the Moon's shadow, very little light remained for MODIS to capture this image. Under normal conditions [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?NAfrica_3_07/2005276 ], the land in the lower half of the image is a lush green, with patches of tan where the land is bare. Here, the tan areas have a red tint in the low light, while the green is completely black. Red dots show where fires were burning in vegetated areas. In the top half of the image, the orange of the Sahara desert is shown in darker tones than normal [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?NAfrica_2_07/2005276 ]. Only in the upper right corner of the image, where full daylight has returned, does the desert look normal. Gradations of darkness within the shadowed area can be seen in the clouds. Bright white clouds reflect light well, so they are easily visible, even in the shadow. Since some light reached the Earth, the clouds remain bright along the outer edges of the shadowed region. As the eclipse progressed, the moon's shadow traveled southeast across the globe. When this image was taken, the deepest shadow lay over Kenya in the lower right corner of the image. Here the clouds are darker, an indication that there was less light to reflect back to the satellite. If this had been a total solar eclipse, the shadow cast by the moon would have been complete. The difference between a total solar eclipse and an annular eclipse is caused by the Moon's orbit around the Earth. The Moon's orbit is not circular, it is elliptical, like a squashed circle with the Earth at its center. This means that the Moon is not always the same distance from the Earth. When it is close to the Earth, the Moon appears larger than when it is far away. During a total solar eclipse, the Moon is closer to the Earth and so is able to block out the Sun entirely. An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon is farther from the Earth, and so the Moon's disk is not large enough to cover the Sun. The large image provided above has a resolution of 500 meters per pixel. It is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Tiny blue flecks in the large image are defects in the data. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC. |
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Fires in Uganda
| Title |
Fires in Uganda |
| Description |
In the Great Rift Valley in eastern Africa, scores of fires were burning on February 22, 2005, when this image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Northwest of the largest lake, Lake Victoria, active fires (locations marked in red) were burning in southwestern Uganda. The border between Uganda and its western neighbor, Democratic Republic of Congo, falls through the middle of Lake Albert, the northernmost of three lakes that mark the western side of Africa's Great Rift Valley. The three lakes appear splashed with gold due to sun glint. The other two lakes are Lake Edward (middle) and Lake Kivu. The fires in Democratic Republic of Congo give the impression of a corral surrounding the country's tropical forests. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team. |
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Floods in Chad
| Title |
Floods in Chad |
| Description |
Ghana, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14528 ] Senegal, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14526 ] Mali, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14534 ] Uganda, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14536 ] and Sudan [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14499 ] are available on the Earth Observatory. Daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/ ] of Africa's Sahel region, where the floods were concentrated, 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., The Sahel grassland is a rain-dependent ecosystem. With no mountain snowpacks to provide water during the dry season or daily infusions of water from moist air masses, the fortunes of the great African grasslands depend entirely on seasonal rain. The contrast between the dry season and the rainy season is illustrated by this pair of images, both captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. MODIS took the top image on September 18, 2007, after several weeks of unusually heavy rain had fallen over the Sahel. At the time, as many as 17 countries were flooded, from Senegal, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean in the west, to Kenya on the continent's east coast. The lower image was taken on July 4, 4007, a short time before the rains started in earnest. The images show Lake Firtri and the Batha River in southern Chad, a short distance east of Lake Chad. In the combination of infrared and visible light used to create these images, water is typically black, though in this case, it is bright blue. Sediment in the water scatters light, creating the blue color. In July, the only visible water is in Lake Fitri. Traces of green vegetation in the wetlands around the lake and along the Batha River are the only indication that water might be present elsewhere in the scene. Beyond these green areas, the landscape around the lake is mostly the rosy tan of barren land. The cluster of waves in the land to the north of Lake Fitri is likely a dune field along the southernmost edge of the Sahara Desert. Clouds, turquoise blue in this false-color image, gather on the southern edge of the scene. By September 18, water had changed southern Chad completely. The region went from dry to flooded. Lake Fitri had nearly doubled in size as the wetlands filled with water. The Batha River ran high, its channel clearly defined by a bold blue line of water. The land is vibrant green, covered with the grasses that sprang up in response to the rains. The rains and resulting floods cut off or severely hampered access to refugee camps along Chad's southeastern border with the Darfur region of Sudan, making the delivery of supplies difficult, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a report [ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LRON-778HGZ?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=FL-2007-000151-TCD ] issued on September 20. The rains were expected to continue through early October. Chad was just one of many African countries that were flooded in September 2007. As many as 17 countries and more than a million people were affected by flooding across Africa, reported BBC News on September 17. Images of flood areas in Nigeria, [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14532 ] |
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Floods in Uganda: Natural Ha
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
* eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/ima
…
Uganda_TMO_2007261
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-09-18 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
Uganda_TMO_2007261 |
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Seasonal Rain Floods the Sah
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Africa's Sahel region, a mar
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AfricaRain_TRM_2007264
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-09-21 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
AfricaRain_TRM_2007264 |
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Congo Volcanoes erupt: Natur
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
The borderland between Rwand
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terra_nyamuragira_25may04
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2004-05-25 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
terra_nyamuragira_25may04 |
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Biomass Burning in Sudan: Na
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Dozens of fires (red pixels)
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Sudan_M2002099
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2002-04-09 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
Sudan_M2002099 |
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Nile River Fluctuations Near
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PIA03420
Sol (our sun)
Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroR
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| 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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