Kerala floods: NASA’s before and after satellite images show the extent of devastation

With the Kerala floods making news across the globe, US space agency NASA has released “before and after” photographs depicting the extent to which the natural calamity has affected the landscape of the southern state. While the “before” image was taken by the Landsat 8 satellite’s operational land imager on February 6, the “after” one was clicked by the multispectral instrument on the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite last Wednesday. The changes in the scenario, as expected, is stark. The second image shows several rivers through the region spilled over their banks, and water from the Karuvannur river running through 40 villages to wash away a 2.2-km stretch of land connecting two national highways. It also gives a glimpse of the Periyar river, which breached its banks -- displacing thousands in the process.