Satellites record Missouri River flooding

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WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Images from U.S. satellites are providing views of ongoing flooding along the Missouri River caused by heavy rains and snowmelt, NASA says.

A comparison of two images taken by the Landsat 5 satellite on May 5 and Sunday reveals the immense geographic extent of the flooding in the Missouri River basin, a NASA release said Wednesday.

The May image shows normal flow while this week's image shows the extensive flooding along the Nebraska and Iowa borders resulting from the river remaining above flood state for an extended period, the agency said.

The USGS WaterWatch Internet site, http://waterwatch.usgs.gov, displays maps, graphs and tables that describe current and past stream flow conditions for the United States.

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that have been gathering data about the Earth since 1972.

Another Landsat satellite is scheduled to launch in December 2012, NASA said.