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Floods in Bangladesh
Bangladesh's annual monsoon started with
unusually heavy rain, intensified by a storm
from the Bay of Bengal on June 9-10, 2007. By
June 11, more than one-third of the
southeastern coastal city of Chittagong was
under water, reported the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. In addition to the
floods, the rains triggered devastating
landslides in the deforested hills on which the
city is built. The country-wide death toll from
the floods and landslides neared 130 on June
12, said Reuters. Most of the deaths were a
result of the landslides or from buildings
collapsing in the rain.
This image on the right shows rainfall totals over
Bangladesh between June 4 and June 11,
2007. The rainfall totals are from the
Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis, which is
based on measurements from the Tropical
Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.
Rainfall totals range from 0 to 100 millimeters
(4 inches), shown in blue, to 400 mm (15.7
inches) to 500 mm (19.7 inches), shown in
red. Most of the country received between 200
and 300 millimeters (7.9 to 11.8 inches) of rain
during the week-long period, though there are
several pockets of heavier rain. Chittagong
sits in one such pocket, where up to 400 mm
(15.7 inches) of rain fell.
Torrential Rain in China
Concentric ovals of red, orange, yellow, and
green are draped over southern China,
showing rainfall totals for the week of June 4
through June 11, 2007. The rainfall totals are
from the Goddard Space Flight Center
Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis, which is
based on rainfall measurements taken by the
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)
satellite. Though seasonal, the rain that fell
during the week was torrential and relentless.
As the image shows, a broad stretch of China
received up to 200 millimeters (8 inches) of
rain, and some areas were inundated with up
to 500 millimeters (20 inches). Floods and
landslides resulted, destroying crops and
forcing some 643,000 people from their
homes, reported the Xinhua News Agency on
ReliefWeb. As of June 11, 71 people had died
and 13 were missing. The most affected area
was the southern coast, where rainfall totals
are highest in this image.
Heavy tropical rains combined with steep
mountains make southeastern China prone to
devastating landslides. Monitoring
landslide-producing conditions typically
requires extensive networks of ground-based
rain gauges and weather instruments. But
many developing countries in high-risk areas
lack the resources to maintain such systems;
heavy rains and flooding often wash away
ground-based instruments. Robert Adler, a
senior scientist in the Laboratory for
Atmospheres at Goddard Space Flight
Center, and Yang Hong, a research scientist
at Goddard Earth Sciences Technology
Center, are confronting the problem by
developing a satellite-based system for
predicting landslides. The system relies on
TRMM data to predict when rainfall in different
areas has reached a landslide-triggering
threshold. The system makes data available
on the Internet just a few hours after the
satellite makes its observations. To read more
about the landslide-monitoring system, please
read the earth observatory feature article "Satellite Monitors
Rains That Trigger Landslides".
TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.
Images produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and captions by
Holli Riebeek, SSAI
Outreach coordinator, MODIS Rapid Response Project
Science writer, NASA's Earth Observatory
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