Thousands of people in the Sudan lost their homes this year to the swollen waters of the Nile, which reached their highest levels in more than two decades. Images from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer show the rising waters that threatened residents north of Sudan's capital, Khartoum. The four views from space show the Nile and its main tributaries near Khartoum, before and after the rainy seasons in 2000 and 2001. The images are available online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/africa
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is one of several Earth-observing experiments aboard the Terra satellite, which was launched in December 1999. The instrument acquires images of Earth at nine angles simultaneously, using nine separate cameras pointed forward, downward and backward along its flight path. More information about the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer is available at http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov .
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.