Flooding in Northeastern China

 

 

 

Summer rains have swollen rivers throughout northeastern China, including the Songhua River. Water levels peaked in Harbin on August 27 and have remained high. The Songhua River is one of many tributaries of the Amur (Heilongjiang) River, which is experiencing its most severe floods in a century.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired these images of the river exactly one year apart, on August 30, 2013 (top) and August 30, 2012 (bottom). The images include infrared and visible light so that plant covered land is bright green and water is black. Blue and white clouds are scattered across the 2013 image.