Storm-stirred sediment produced colourful swirls alongside the western coast of Florida.
Hurricane Ian barreled into Florida’s southwestern coast on September 28, 2022, as a robust category-Four storm with sustained winds of about 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour. However, wind was not the one harmful part of the highly effective storm; water was additionally a significant component, within the type of a catastrophic storm surge, relentless downpours, and intense flooding.
The redistribution of water is clearly evident in these natural-color satellite tv for pc pictures, which present colourful swirls of sediment that the storm stirred up in Florida’s coastal waters. The turquoise colour is probably going sediment that the storm Ian lifted from the seafloor because it neared the coast. Brown water nearer to shore is probably going coloured by sediment from land, carried by rivers and runoff flowing into the ocean.
October 1, 2022
September 22, 2022
The picture (higher) was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 1, 2022, a few days after landfall. For comparison, the second image (lower) shows a more typical view of the region’s coastal waters on September 22, 2022.
Notice that even before the storm, there is already some color in the water. Although smaller amounts of suspended sediments were likely present, much of the color is actually due to light reflecting off seagrass beds, the sandy seafloor, and coral reefs (especially around the Bahamas). Some of the darkest colors near rivers could be caused by tannins from decaying vegetation.
September 30, 2022
The image above was acquired by the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Sentinel-2 mission on September 30, 2022. It shows a detailed view of the coastline near Fort Myers, Florida. Parts of this coastline and barrier islands were among some of the hardest hit, with flooding from storm surge that likely measured at least 6 feet (2 meters) deep.
Almost one week after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, swirls of sediment were still apparent on October 4.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022) processed by the European Space Agency.
