Red river floods in Minnesota Gallery (14 pictures):

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25 March: Brian Witthoeft works on a retaining wall to keep out the rising waters from reaching his home in Moorhead, Minnesota

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25 March 2009: Volunteers struggle in the snow to unload a boat full of sandbags at a home in Fargo, North Dakota 

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26 March: John Iverson wades through icy water after leaving his home in Oxbow, North Dakota. Water from the Red and Wild Rice Rivers had started to overtake the small community, about 15 miles south of Fargo 

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27 March: Steam rises off clay in what used to be Centennial Fields, as heavy equipment excavates material to build earthen dykes along the Red river, in Fargo

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28 March: Pete Babler inspects a levee for leaks in the Harwood Grove neighbourhood in Fargo

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28 March: A house near the Oak Port neighbourhood on the northside of Moorhead is protected by sandbags from flooding 

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28 March: Members of the Horace fire department, the North Dakota national guard and volunteers help to sandbag a retention pond to keep flood water from the water treatment facility near Horace, North Dakota

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28 March: National guard personnel walk in icy floodwaters as they try to evacuate residents in Fargo

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28 March: Verne Parks of the Minnesota national guard wades through the water to bring supplies to people in Oakport, Minnesota

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28 March: Moorhead is inundated by floodwaters as the river continues to rise

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28 March: Only a stop sign is still visible on a flooded road in Fargo

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28 March: Just inside a sandbag levee, Jonathan Robbins checks on a pump which is removing flood water seepage in Fargo

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28 March: Jared Bakko hauls a boat down a flooded road after taking supplies to his grandmother, just south of Moorhead

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28 March: Homes are surrounded by floating ice and floodwater in Fargo. The normal banks of the river are defined by the twisting tree line

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Against the waves: Flood defences in Bangladesh Gallery (7 pictures)

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Men stand in line, sending mud up to the embankment. They are trying to build a new and stronger flood barrier after tropical cyclone Sidr destroyed the old one in 2007

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Thousands live on the embankments surrounding the island of Padma Pakur in the south of Bangladesh. On the left side is the ocean, on the right the flooded island, which used to be villages, cultivated land and fishing farms

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Men pass mud along a line as they build an embankment by hand on the island of Padma Pakur

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'The flood barriers are not able to prevent the flooding any more. I am afraid we will not be able to move back home,' says Sale Ha Begum. She is building a tent for herself and her son on the embankment. Since May, thousands have been forced to live on the narrow flood barriers in tents and temporary cabins

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Between the beach and the town, huge areas are planted with trees to prevent erosion and act as a shield against winds

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After a day of fishing in Bengal Bay, boats returns to the beach. The water is coming closer to land, causing erosion along the longest beach, Inani beach. The government tries to prevent the erosion by planting trees and reinforcing the embankment

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Men and women fish along the embankment. It is one of the few ways the local population is able to get food and a small income

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Philippines floods: hundreds dead or missing after storm (pics of philippines)

A resident trapped by floods brought by tropical storm Ketsana is evacuated to higher ground with his pet dogs in Marikina City

Filipinos wade through floods to higher ground at Cainta, east of Manila








Residents wait for evacuation from Cainta Rizal, east of Manila

A flood survivorwashes his family's soiled belongings in Silangan village, north of the capital, Manila

Men try to move a car as flood waters recede in Marikina City, near Manila

Filipino rescuers evacuate flood victims in Pasig City, east of Manila

Filipino get packs of goods during a relief operation in Pampanga province, north of Manila


Filipinos are drenched in mud as they try to recover belongings
from damaged riverside homes in San Mateo,

Filipinos plead for help as they evacuate a flooded hospital in Cainta, east of Manila

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Satellite eye on Earth:part 3(pics)

 

On 24 September, the dense dust that had covered eastern Australia the previous day blew south over the Tasman Sea towards New Zealand. The dust plume is still densely concentrated in this image, highlighting the strength of the winds. The lower half of New Caledonia is visible along the top edge of the image. Hidden by clouds, the northern shore of New Zealand's South Island is outlined in the lower right corner of the image

 

From space, north-west Minnesota looks like a patchwork quilt. Fields change hue with the season and with the alternating plots of organic wheat, soybeans, corn, alfalfa, flax, or hay

 

Fires burned in and around Mozambique in mid-September. At this time of year, near the end of Africa's dry season, the region glows with agricultural fires and wildfires. In this true-colour image, faint red outlines indicate hotspots where the Modis satellite detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fires

 

In a patchwork of agricultural fields outside Seville, Spain, two towers rise above the plain (at the centre of the top of the image). Nearby arrays of mirrors reflect light onto the towers, illuminating the water vapor and dust suspended in the air and creating visible beams. Within the towers, the thermal energy from the concentrated light creates steam, and the steam powers turbines to generate electricity. Known as PS10 and PS20, the mirror-tower networks are part of a larger project intended to meet the energy needs of some 180,000 homes roughly the energy needs of Seville by 2013, without greenhouse gas emissions

 

In late August 2009, ice clogged some but not all of the north-west passage, and snow had retreated from most of the islands in the Canadian Arctic archipelago. In this rare cloud-free view of the archipelago, although Parry Channel appears partially ice free, especially in the east, sea ice spans most of McClure Strait, blocking the northern, or preferred, route through the North-west passage. The southern route, however, which Roald Amundsen followed from 1903 to 1906, appears open. Snow-free land surfaces allow a view of the islands' topography

 

Ol Doinyo Lengai, in northern Tanzania is part of the volcanic system of the Great Rift valley in eastern Africa. It is the world’s only active carbonatite volcano. Unlike other volcanoes, which spew silica-rich basalts, Ol Doinyo Lengai erupts with an igneous rock rich in carbonates such as calcite and dolomite. Called natrocarbonatite, it is rich in sodium

 

After causing devastating floods in the Philippines, tropical storm Ketsana continued its westward journey across the South China Sea, headed in the direction of Indochina. This image, captured on 28 September, shows the eye of the storm hovering over the island of Hainan, with clouds extending as far east as Cambodia and Laos

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Satellite eye on Earth:part 2(pics)

Small glaciers spill into a mostly dry valley in western Greenland in this image. Multiple glaciers frequently flow into straight valleys in Greenland, which have been formed from earlier glaciations that carved the bedrock. The shallow, blue-green water in the valley bottom is likely laced with rock flour left over from earlier glacial grinding of Greenland's rocks

After a spectacular explosion in May 2008, Chile's Chaiten volcano has erupted continuously for the past 16 months. The arrival of spring in the southern hemisphere allowed this clear view of the ongoing eruption, which had been hidden by clouds for much of the winter. Chaiten is currently in a dome-building phase. Thick lava is erupting in Chaiten's caldera, slowly building a steep-sided dome. Eruptions of ash and steam occur when portions of the dome collapse. The town of Chaiten (located south of the volcano) remains evacuated due to the threat of flows of volcanic debris from the unstable dome

This image shows the Volga delta and Caucasus. The Volga delta (seen here as a fan shape in the top centre of the image) is the largest inland river delta in Europe, located where Europe's largest river system, the Volga, drains into the Caspian Sea on the Russian coast. The Caucasus - the strip of land in the centre - contains the Caucasus mountains, including Europe's highest mountain (Mount Elbrus) and is considered to be a dividing line between Asia and Europe. The Caucasus is an area of great ecological importance, home to some 6,400 species of plants, 1,600 of which are endemic to the region. Its wildlife includes leopards, brown bears, wolves, European bisons, marals, golden eagles and hooded crows

The 38km-long Lago do Erepecu (Lake Erepecu) in Brazil runs parallel to the lower Rio Trombetas (Trombetas river), which snakes along the lower half of this astronaut's photograph. Waterbodies in the Amazon rainforest are often so dark they can be difficult to distinguish. In this image, however, the lake and river stand out from the uniform green of the forest in great detail as a result of sun reflecting off water's surface

When the hot, humid air from a jet engine mixes with colder, drier air in the surrounding environment, condensation trails, or 'contrails', form in the sky. If the air through which the aeroplane is flying is already close to being saturated with water vapour, the condensation trail will last longer than when the air is dry. A contrail that lingers can spread out into a layer of cirrus (thin, wispy clouds). This image, captured on 9 September, shows a number of contrails above some notable geological features in an area of Quebec, Canada. One is the circular lake called the Manicouagan reservoir, seen here in the mid-right of the image. The lake is circular because it is the remnant of one of the Earth's largest preserved impact craters. Waters from Manicouagan eventually flow into the St Lawrence Bay - the large body of water near the bottom right of the image

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Satellite eye on Earth:part 1(pics)

Rivers flow across the world's continents, picking up soil as they grow and moving it towards the ocean. When rivers pour into the sea, the dirt and rocks sink as fresh water disperses into salt. Over time, rich flat land, a delta, builds around the river mouth, usually forming a triangular shape. Deltas are rich agricultural land and provide easy access to water and water-based transportation. As a result, many of the world's largest deltas are heavily populated. Nearly half a billion people live on or near deltas, and that could be an increasingly serious problem, according to a paper published in Nature Geoscience. Most of the world's river deltas are sinking relative to sea level, putting millions at risk of severe flooding, researchers say, and human activity, such as dam-building, is the biggest reason. One of the deltas in danger is the Irrawaddy river delta in Burma,

Thick smoke covered much of southern Borneo in September. The smoke was so dense that it hid the ground from view in these photo-like images. The smoke is clearly coming from fires burning in Kalimantan, the Indonesian half of the island of Borneo. In this tropical region, the widespread fires were almost certainly deliberately set to clear land. The places where the Modis satellite detected hot spots, probably fires, are marked in red

The darker hues of early autumn can be seen in this image of north central Europe. Dominating the top of the image are the black waters of the Baltic Sea. Sweden and Denmark are in the top-left corner. South of Denmark is Germany. Moving to the east is Poland, and Kaliningrad (part of Russia). Continuing to the north is Lithuania, and part of Latvia. Between Germany and Poland is the Czech Republic. Slovakia is south of Poland. Moving still further south is Austria (below the Czech Republic on the map). In the lower left corner of the image is Switzerland, northern Italy and the snow-covered Alps. The northern tip of the Adriatic Sea is at the bottom of the image. East of the Adriatic is Slovenia and Croatia. North of Croatia and south of Slovakia is Hungary. The large lake in this region is Lake Balaton in Hungary. It's the largest lake in Central Europe

In south-eastern Mongolia, roughly halfway between Ulan Baatar and Beijing, lies Tabun Khara Obo, an ancient crater identified as a probable impact crater in 1976. Confirmation of this hypothesis did not come until 2008 however, when drilling at the site revealed rock features consistent with high-speed impacts such as those caused by meteorites. In this image, sunlight shines from the south-east, leaving the northern and western slopes in shadow. The crater's rim rises some 20-30m above the crater bottom. The crater occurs on a block of Proterzoic rock more than 600m years old, but the crater's age - which may be considerably younger - has not yet been identified. The dark, irregularly shaped area in the lower right corner of the image results from vegetation, likely occurring along a river channel. For the most part, the scene shows an earth-toned, arid landscape

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