Friday 27 February 2009

The Gulf of Water

Henry at Fosnez Blog is a clever clogs.

He's linked up satellite images from NASA's Earth Observatory to show the amazing impact flooding in the Gulf has caused.

More than 1 million sq ks of area has been under severe flood, along the Flinders River system, on Queensland's Western Cape York Peninsula.
Taiwan’s Formosat-2 satellite captured the photo above, of Normanton area on February 19th.
The two large photos below were taken 16th December, and the flooded one February 18. NASA says that the water ranges in colour from pale blue to black, which include both infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and earth.

"Lighter blue water is either extremely shallow (merely moistened mud channels) or thick with sediment," NASA reports. "Clearer or deeper water is black. At least some of the pale blue water is colored with sediment because dense plumes of sediment poured into the Gulf of Carpentaria."
"In addition to causing floods, the intense rain sustained plant growth. In two months, the color of the landscape changed from tan-pink, the color of bare or sparsely vegetated ground, to green, the color of plant-covered land."
Simply roll your mouse over the image to see the extent of the land cover.
Source

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