Morganza Spillway Open on the Mississippi River
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May 18, 2011 -- An estimated 108,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Mississippi River is rushing through Louisiana's Morganza Floodway today as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened another bay bringing the total to 16 open gates out of the 125 possible.
On May 15, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured the above natural-color image of the Morganza Floodway. The image was acquired at 11:20 a.m. Central Daylight Time, one day after the spillway was partially opened. In the satellite image, the white pixels near the spillway are whitewater churned up by the flow through the gates.
Water ranges in colors of olive, tan, black, and gray, reflecting the different loads of muddy sediment churned up from the bottom; darker areas might also reflect deeper water. Past the spillway, water is more readily apparent along the levee on the south and east side of the floodway, suggesting that there are fewer trees and perhaps lower elevations in those areas.
Green areas do not necessarily mean a lack of water. As the aerial photo below shows, much of the floodway is covered with trees that will shield the water from the eyes of satellite sensors. The Corps' New Orleans District today posted on Facebook this photo of the spillway taken on May 17.
Upstream, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the historic Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Station is seen surrounded by floodwater on May 17. The Mississippi river at Vicksburg is expected to crest tomorrow. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.)
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