Northern Madagascar (before floods) Jacques Descloitres, MODIS
Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC In January, two weeks of heavy
rain inundated Madagascar just before the island was struck by
Cyclone Fari. This series of images by the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments aboard NASA.s
Terra and Aqua satellites displays flooding in northwest
Madagascar on January 31, 2003. Prior to being hit by the
cyclone, floods throughout the country killed 13 people and
forced several thousand from their homes. In these false-color
images, water is solid blue and black, land is green and brown,
and clouds are light blue and white. Normally, the rivers and
lakes in northwest Madagascar are much less swollen (December 6,
2002).