Valais, October 2000 - Heavy rains have caused problems in Switzerland and in northern Italy since Sunday 15 October. Sixty centimetres of water have fallen in two days over the Alps linking Italy, Switzerland and France. Rock slides and rushing water cut off many villages in Italy on Sunday, and high water shut down rail lines and roads, sometimes washing away bridges.

A series of ERS SAR satellite images were acquired during the flooding.

This night image covers the south-west part of Switzerland (cantons of Vaud and Valais). Some flooded areas are visible in the lower-right quarter of the image along the Rhone river before it arrives at the Leman lake.

Orbit: 28712 - Frame: 927

View large image [JPG, 153 KB]

Two magnified views of areas from the above image are available:

This night image covers the Alps (with Mt. Bianco), the Aosta valley and the Northern-west part of Piemonte. Some flooded areas are visible along the Dora Baltea river.

Orbit: 28712 - Frame: 909

View large image [JPG, 156 KB]

Two magnified views of Piemonte from the above image are available:

This night image covers the Maritime Alps and the western part of Piemonte, with the town of Torino clearly evident at the top right of the image. Some flooded areas are evident along the Po river.

Orbit: 28712 - Frame: 891

View large image [JPG, 161 KB]

A magnified view of Piemonte from the above image is available:

This multitemporal image was created by merging the day-time acquisition of 16 October 2000 (orbit 28705, frame 2687) and 7 September 1998 (taken as reference orbit 17683) around the Aosta valley. The blue areas indicate floods.

View large image [JPG, 63 KB]

This image was created by merging two ERS-2 SAR PRI images: Orbit 28712 (16 October 2000) and orbit 22700 (23 of August 2000), frame 891.

The blue areas in the valley are the flooded areas. The blue on the mountains indicates fresh snow, or a change in the soil moisture.

View large image [JPG, 202 KB]

This is a magnified view, extracted from the above image, which shows the area around the town of Turin and the Po river.

View large image [JPG, 282 KB]

Back to top