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    Geoguardian presents environmental contents based on satellite images and maps. This web site deals with environmental and related research interests and frequently update with latest environmental contents. Kithsiri Perera - USQ, QLD, Australia, 2005-2015 |
Environmental Contents Archive 2016_2017 (selected)
Deadly Monsoon Floods in Sri Lanka
Devastating heavy monsoon rains brought widespread damage to Southwest Sri Lanka. Extremely heavy rains started since 26th May have caused landslides and floods in a number of districts killing over 180 people. Another 90 people are still missing. The image here shows heavy monsoon clouds extracted from a MODIS satellite image over the island on 26th May, the day the heaviest rainfall was recorded in the past few days. Some lowland southwestern areas have recorded over half of the total 5 months average Southwest Monsoon rainfall, during last 7 days. Districts with heavy damage are marked in red where at least 1000 people were affected in each district. According to government records, about 0.5 million people have been affected by the disaster so far, while 1000s of houses have also been damaged. Government forces and volunteers are still busy with search and rescue operations for missing people.
Highest recorded temperature in India
The highest recorded temperature in India has reported in the town of Phalodi, in the western state of Rajasthan. The thermometer has recorded 51 degrees Celsius, breaking the previous record (50.6C) in India. Apart from Phalodi region, number of locations around Rajasthan has marked 50C. Today's image shows land surface temperature calculated by NASA which has highest value up to 45C. Also, cities over 1 million people in India have overlapped to show the massive population affected by the burning extreme weather. A large part of India (in yellow on the map) is experiencing severe heat waves and state governments estimate more than 370 people killed so far.
Deadly floods and landslides hit Sri Lanka
Disastrous rains came with the Cyclone Roanu, have wrecked the island nation in the past few days. Local reports fear over 100 people have been killed due to the landslides in Aranayake, a hilly remote are about 60km east of the commercial capital Colombo. Since the downpour began over the weekend, about 500mm of rainfall has fallen in Mahailluppallama, a place where the mean annual rainfall is 1500mm. According to governmental figures, the death toll now stands at 58, the number of missing people is 15, and 28 have been injured. About 415,000 people have been affected by the floods and landslides. The latest cloud image here shows the continuing rainy weather over the already heavily-soaked island. Precipitable water in the five-day weather forecast issued by the U.S. National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) shows a high potential of rains (yellow areas in the insert map) over the affected region. Heavily damaged remote region by landslides, Aranayake, is also marked on the map.
Silent killer in Ethiopia
The death toll of droughts is rising without proper exposure to media, unlike most of other natural disasters. The worst drought in recent history in Ethiopia has started to take its toll. The situation is severe in neighbouring Somalia and Sudan too. The map here shows the looming drought danger in Ethiopia. Yellow shows driest areas recorded 30 years and red shows the 55% or less water availability recorded in late 2015 (compare to last 30 year average). The Government of Ethiopia estimates that 10.2 million people will require emergency food assistance in 2016, making Ethiopia the country with largest acutely food insecure population in the world. The drought has also severely hampered Ethiopia's hardly won positive economic growth in recent years. Records say millions of children and aged people are suffering from malnutrition and face the danger of famine. Already drought has destroyed a large number of livestock and 1000s of haters of farmlands. The WFP explain that the level of humanitarian need in Ethiopia has "tripled since early 2015, caused by successive harvest failures and widespread livestock deaths. Acute malnutrition has risen sharply, and one quarter of Ethiopia's districts is now officially classified as facing a nutrition crisis." In 1983-85, the worst drought recorded in last 100 years in Ethiopia has killed more than 400,000 people.
ShakeMap of Kyushu Earthquake
A series of earthquakes hit Kyushu Island of Japan in 15th April, 2016, awakening the fearsome memories of the massive Tokoku earthquake hit in 2011. The magnitude 7.00 quake and a large number of aftershocks have flattened many houses in Kumamoto city and surrounding region. The death toll was relatively lower though a significant number of mostly elder people have died (about 45) from the hit. Within the same week, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Ecuador, killing more than 500 people. Map shows "MMI: instrumental intensity (Modified Mercalli Intensity) units of the ShakeMap" (Red lines are most violent and teal bluelines are the least). MMI is a recent product published by USGS based on recorded ground motions. Read more at: http://usgs.github.io/shakemap/tg_intensity.html
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