Springtime Floods in Southern Russia

As the ice and snow of winter melt away, the rivers of Southern Russia are filling with water. The annual spring floods have swelled rivers across the region.

The longest river in Europe, the Volga River, was wide with springtime runoff on May 11, 2005, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured the left image. On April 14, right, the lower reaches of the river formed a thin dark line before emptying into the Caspian Sea. In the next month, melting snow had pushed the river into a wide black ribbon. The images are false color, so that water is black and dark blue, clouds are white and light blue, vegetation is green, bare earth is tan and pink, and snow is light blue. The snow that dusted the northern reaches of the landscape on April 14 had melted by May 11, undoubtedly contributing to the high water along the river.

The large images provided above have a resolution of 250 meters per pixel, but are available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Terra/MODIS

  • Start Date

    2005-05-11

  • Event Start Date

    2005-05-07

  • NH Image ID

    12869

  • NH Event ID

    10669

  • NH Posting Date

    2005-05-11