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Catastrophic floods from heavy rainfall in Pakistan have now stranded 800,000 people, leaving them accessible only by air, the United Nations announced August 24. The U.N. estimated that 17 million people—nearly 10 percent of the country's population—have now been affected by the floods, and that roughly half of those people likely require humanitarian assistance. The estimated death toll from the tragedy ranges from 1,200 to 1,600 people.
Imagery from the U.S. Geological Survey's Landsat 5 satellite, which has been in orbit since 1984, shows the vast extent of the flooding along Pakistan's swollen Indus River. The left photo was taken August 19; the right image was taken during a July 2009 Landsat 5 flyover. Each image is approximately 120 kilometers wide.
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7 Comments
Add CommentI'm surprised at the blue color of the water, unless it's enhanced or something. Floods where I am (northern Calif.) are brownish or greenish. Maybe due to the camera being in the sky?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyway, that's a mind-boggling flood, and I sympathize with those enduring the hardships and loss.
According to the LandSat site, the "images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water appears in varying shades of blue. Vegetation is green, and bare ground is pinkish brown. Clouds range in color from pale blue-green to bright turquoise." :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould do with some scale and human reference points here, towns, villages, roads, railways and bridges. What has happened to the farm animals? Will this lead to long term hunger due to lost crops and the time taken to replace breeding stock?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is massive flood. Indus river is more than 3000km long and this time flooded from right on top of himalayas to the sea level towns of Sindh. 20 million poulation is affected with most of the Pakistani agricultural lands inundated and the seasonal crops lost. It is catastrophic blow to the Pakistani economy. If world doesn't act on global warming then the other choice is to donate large sums of money to poorer nations like Pakistan to cope with the effects.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe LandSat site if its an early warning system, this should propagated to the respective Disaster Management Authority in Pakistan., to save lives, rescue operations, with help to avoid the re-occurance of surprises in todays scientific age. Education in climatology not only in school, but at the level of the disaster management authority is most essential.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe floods are tragic beyond words, and the whole world has to open its heart to relieve the suffering of the pooor and infirm. Besides urgent relief, could not this cataclysmic event been predicted, and populations alerted so that preventative measures could have been taken in advance? It would appear that even with all the talk about climate change, scientists and governments appear grossly inadequate and unprepared for the ravages of natural phenomena. It is time climatalogists made a meaningful input into world bodies like the UN so that special warning systems are set up to override national boundaries so as to interact directly with national governments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor a same amount of rainfall in a given time, floods are also caused by decreasing tree cover (the picture shows some green on the right along the river)and the river bed rising due to accumulation of dissolved soil.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn India, we are noticing fast reduction in greenery on hillsides and so-called forests. Reforestation is showing improvement in some areas of the country.