Southeast India Flooding, Dec. 2015

  • Released Tuesday, April 5, 2016
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False-color image, acquired on December 8, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, showing the extent of flooding in southeastern India after a deluge of rain a week earlier. The Somasila Reservoir and other water bodies in the region are significantly expanded compared to the image from October 21, 2015.

False-color image, acquired on December 8, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, showing the extent of flooding in southeastern India after a deluge of rain a week earlier. The Somasila Reservoir and other water bodies in the region are significantly expanded compared to the image from October 21, 2015.

In early December 2015, a deluge of rain led to widespread flooding in southeastern India. One estimate, based on data from a satellite that makes measurements through the cloud layers, found that rainfall totals in the area approached ,a href="v">400 millimeters (16 inches) during a 48-hour period.

About a week later, clouds cleared and afforded a view of the flooding that persisted. The false-color images above, acquired with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) onLandsat 8, show an area about 200 kilometers northwest of Chennai. The top image was acquired on October 21, before the rains, and the bottom image was acquired on December 8. Turn on the image comparison tool to see the change.

According to a news report on December 2, almost 1,000 cubic meters of water per second were pouring into Somasila Reservoir.

Read original story by Kathryn Hansen and Joshua Stevens NASA Earth Observatory:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=87158

False-color image, acquired on October 21, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, showing the Somasila Reservoir and surrounding region.

False-color image, acquired on October 21, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, showing the Somasila Reservoir and surrounding region.

Animation of flood waters in southeastern India, near Chennai, sliding between an October 21, 2015, image and a December 8, 2015, image. Both are from the Operational Land Imager on the NASA/USGS Landsat 8 satellite.

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Credits

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NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Kathryn Hansen.

This page was originally published on Tuesday, April 5, 2016.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 12:19 AM EST.

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