Attachments
Unusually heavy rains hit Morocco in late November
2002, giving rise to floods that killed more than 60 people. The
above false-color image (right) displays some of the worst of the flooding
just north of the city of Rabat, located on Morocco's coast. The image
was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
instrument, flying aboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft.
Most of the casualties were due to flash
flooding throughout the western half of Morocco. The water from the flash
floods has drained into the now swollen riverbeds and lakebeds that appear
as solid blue in the image. The floodwaters washed away loose sediment
from the surrounding countryside and carried it to the Atlantic Ocean to
form the sediment plumes that appear along the coast. Normally, hardly
any standing water in Morocco is visible in MODIS imagery (left, acquired
November 7, 2002). In these false color images land is green and tan, clouds
are white and light blue, and water is dark blue and black.