Typhoon Saomai, one of the strongest typhoons to impact China, first affected Taiwan and then made landfall in Zhejiang province in August 2006. Saomai, named after the Vietnamese word for the planet Venus, brought extreme winds and caused widespread destruction of homes, significant flooding, and loss of life. This image, captured by the Envisat satellite, depicts Typhoon Saomai approaching Zhejiang province. The coastlines have been highlighted in red to define their locations.

• Image 1: Product: MERIS_RR_1P (1200 metre resolution), Satellite: Envisat, Instrument: Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometre (MERIS), Acquisition Date: 10 Aug 2006, Orbit: 23232, Orbit direction: Descending, Band combination: 11, 14, 3 (RGB)