Thursday, May 08, 2008
The Burmese cyclone
The picture at left below is a satellite photograph of the Irrawaddy delta in Burma before the huge cyclone, and the picture at right is after:
Flood water can be difficult to see in photo-like satellite images, particularly when the water is muddy. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite use a combination of visible and infrared light to make floodwaters obvious. Water is blue or nearly black, vegetation is bright green, bare ground is tan, and clouds are white or light blue.
On April 15, rivers and lakes are sharply defined against a backdrop of vegetation and fallow agricultural land. The Irrawaddy River flows south through the left-hand side of the image, splitting into numerous distributaries known as the Mouths of the Irrawaddy. The wetlands near the shore are a deep blue green. Cyclone Nargis came ashore across the Mouths of the Irrawaddy and followed the coastline northeast.
The entire coastal plain is flooded in the May 5 image. The fallow agricultural areas appear to have been especially hard hit. For example, Yangôn (population over 4 million) is almost completely surrounded by floods. Several large cities (population 100,000–500,000) are in the affected area. Muddy runoff colors the Gulf of Martaban turquoise.
Bad news.
10 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu May 08, 07:56:00 AM:
Here is a comment from Strategy Page on May 3.
”It took the isolationist government several days before it agreed to accept foreign aid. Events like this are sometimes the first step in the destruction of dictatorial governments.”
One example is the Managua earthquake of 1972. The outrage over Somoza’s pocketing of earthquake aid funds from worldwide sources was the beginning of the end for the Somoza dynasty’s rule over Nicaragua.
By , at
Thu May 08, 08:39:00 AM:
Maybe ground below sea level is not a safe place to be during a cyclone/hurricane? Can one say that W might not be responsible for the Category 2 cane that struck NO, or would that be a stretch for your liberal readers?
By , at
Thu May 08, 08:55:00 AM:
Anon ... if you're talking Katrina, that was a cat 5, peaking at 175mph and causing swells over 50ft high in the Gulf.
JT
By 
antithaca, at
Thu May 08, 09:57:00 AM:
the projected death toll has been creeping up for days since storm hit.
going on that pic alone, seems like it's going to keep going up, and up.
By , at
Thu May 08, 11:20:00 AM:
The floods are calamitous news indeed. What's also bad news is that we're measuring the destruction using satellite images and not from aid workers actually present in the affected area. There are literally no international workers being permitted to help, if you can imagine that.
By Andrewdb, at
Thu May 08, 11:20:00 AM:
The sea surge from hurricanes, cyclones, etc. results from the extremely low air pressure which is in the center of the storm. When you have several miles less air pushing down on the sea, it tends to rise. I have read reports that in this case it was about 7.5 METERS - which would be what, about 25 feet in real units? If one is living at sea level and it suddenly rises several stories, bad things happen.
"The Stormchasers" is a good book on the guys who fly into the hurricanes in the Gulf for NOAA, and contains an excellent discussion of the meteorology of this stuff.
By Escort81, at
Thu May 08, 12:01:00 PM:
I am guessing this will get much, much worse, because of the reluctance of the Burmese government to coordinate with those willing to provide international emergency aid (including the U.S. Navy, probably the entity best able to deliver it in meaningful volume and with speed), and because of poor infrastructure outside the primary affilcted area. Relief efforts are going to have to ramp up to the level of the Tsunami relief of a few years ago.
I suppose the only upside is that there is a chance the government might fall as a result. What are they going to do, declare martial law? Can't clamp down any more, they've already done that.
By , at
Thu May 08, 12:50:00 PM:
Al Gore is shamlessly exploiting this cyclone to push his rediculous global warming ideas this man has absolutly no shame he is as bad as those jerks from GREENPEACE i mean gore should be horsw whipped for this outragious act
By , at
Thu May 08, 02:22:00 PM:
JT, You might do a Google search. Saying it was a 5 is like stating it was a 0. At one point it was a 5, a 0 at another. When it struck land it was a category 3, New Orleans is actually inland and most winds in New Orleans were in the 1 or 2 range!
The liberal press and it's parrots propagate the 5 myth.
By , at
Fri May 09, 12:49:00 PM:
"It is not clear how much of aid has been delivered to the victims in the Irrawaddy delta.
"Believe me, the government will not allow outsiders to go into the devastated area," said Yangon food shop owner Joseph Kyaw.
"The government only cares about its own stability. They don't care about the plight of the people," he said."
This is horrible news.
