March 17, 2023 - Flooded Lake Tarabool, Northern Territory, Australia

Tarrabool Lake
Tweet
Share

A passing tropical low dumped several days of downpours on Australia’s
Northern Territory in early March 2023. The widespread downpours pushed
rivers beyond their banks and forced evacuations from several
communities.

On March 16, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of
flooded Lake Tarabool and the Eva Downs Swamp in northeastern Northern
Territory. For most of the year, Tarabool is a small body of water, but
when inundated due to seasonal or exceptional rainfall, the lake
expands into the surrounding swamp, creating a massive freshwater
wetland spanning 275,000 hectares. Water is slow to recede and may
remain for more than a year after heavy inundation.

Lake Tarabool and Eva Downs Swamp are listed on the Register of the
National Estate and the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia
and are classified as sites of conservation significance by the
Northern Territory Government. The area is listed as an Important Bird
Area (IBA) by BirdLife International, with more than 250,000 birds
counted at one time in a recent inundation. The land is private,
however, and has not been formally conserved.

According to news reports, the mid-March floods swamped cattle
pastures, roads, and homes in the remote region near Tarabool in
Northern Territory. Farther north and west in the more densely
populated Victoria Daly and Roper Gulf regions, floodwaters inundated
entire towns, blocked key roads and rail lines, and disrupted food
supplies. Daguragu, Kalkarindji, Pigeon Hole, and Palumpa are among the
towns that had to be evacuated.

While this single image shows a well-filled lake surrounded by
widespread water, the best way to appreciate the extent of this year’s
flooding is to compare with a similar image acquired on a more normal
March day. Thanks to the NASA Worldview app, this can be done simply by
clicking here, which reveals a roll-over image comparing the March
16, 2023 view of the inundated lake with another Aqua MODIS image
acquired on March 5, 2022, on a more typical year.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 3/16/2023
Resolutions: 1km (208.8 KB), 500m (550.6 KB), 250m (382.3
KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-03-17

--- up 1 year, 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)