Satellite Views of Deadly Cyclone in Myanmar

By Nancy Atkinson - May 5, 2008 at 2:17 PM UTC | Planetary Science
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The cyclone that ravaged the southeast Asian country of Myanmar over the weekend was an incredibly deadly and destructive storm. News reports say at least 10,000 people were killed, and thousands more were missing as of May 5. Cyclone Nargis made landfall with sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts of 150-160 mph, which is the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or minimal Category 4 hurricane. This was the first cyclone of the 2008 season. Above is an image from NASA's Terra satellite, and specifically the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS.) You can see this storm was a whopper, however, by the time MODIS acquired this image on May 3 at 10:55 am local time the cyclone had lost much of its original strength and was at tropical storm strength. Even more astounding are the images available from MODIS of the landscape of Myanmar both before and after the cyclone hit.

The top image was taken on April 15, 2008, well before the storm and shows a calm landscape where rivers and lakes are visible, as well as the green of vegetation. In the lower image, taken on May 5, the entire coastal plain is flooded. News reports say the agricultural areas have been especially hard hit. But cities as well were affected. For example, Rangôn, with a population over 4 million is almost completely surrounded by floods. Several other large cities with populations of 100,000â€"500,000 are also in the area affected by the cyclone.

The

MODIS Rapid Response Team

has been processing the images as soon as they are available from the spacecraft in order to provide information about the storm and the region.

The blue dot on the globe below marks the Andaman Sea and the area affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Original News Source: NASA's Earth Observatory

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com