Brain Contour

NASA provided satellite images of Sendai, Japan before and after the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit and devastated the region on March 11, 2011. The images vary in spatial resolution. One set of images came from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellite. MODIS provides daily reflectance data of the entire Earth’s surface that are specifically designed for land and water applications with spatial resolutions as small as 250 m. The other set of images came from the imaging instrument Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) flying on Terra. ASTER has a much higher spatial resolution of 15 m, which means you could see more details of the earth’s surface.

NASA Image of Tsunami Damage near Ishinomaki, Japan

My little brother, Jeffrey, who works in Manila, was among the thousands of people affected by the tropical storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana) that hit the Philippines this weekend. After my sister (in Illinois) and I heard about the worsening situation in Manila due to flooding caused by the torrential rains, we immediately contacted our brother, but to no avail. His phone, and all his friends’ phones, were unreachable. We posted messages on Facebook hoping other friends and relatives could somehow trace our brother’s whereabouts.

Last night, we finally got a note that my brother and some others were trapped in the second floor of a two-story house. Water on the first floor was about chest-high.