MOSCOW, (PNA/RIA Novosti) — Extreme floods that affected Russia’s Far East and northeastern China were caught on camera by NASA’s Aqua satellite, NASA’s Earth Observatory said Friday.
The images were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and have been colorized because those were shot using short-wave and near-infrared light which is invisible to human eyes.
Water in the photos is black, plant-covered land is green and the flood-hit city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur is pale brown.
Russian meteorologists said flooding in Russia’s Far East is the worst in the region in 120 years.
The flooding affected both Amur and Magadan regions, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Primorye Territory as well as the Siberian republic of Yakutia.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said Friday the floods affected 97 residential areas, 76 of which are in Khabarovsk Region.
About 4,000 houses with some 50,000 inhabitants are inundated in various parts of the Russian Far East.
Khabarovsk Territory remains the worst-hit region.
The rising water level near the region’s second-largest city Komsomolsk-on-Amur peaked 911 centimeters (almost 30 feet) on Thursday afternoon and stalled before slightly decreasing by a centimeter on Friday morning.
Last week, water level in the river near the region’s capital and largest city Khabarovsk peaked at more than 810 centimeters (26.5 feet), surpassing the record mark of 642 centimeters (21 feet) registered in 1897.
About a week after the flooding peaked, water level near Khabarovsk decreased by more than a meter and stood at 702 centimeters (23 feet) on Friday morning.