Bangladesh's heavy rainfall examined with NASA's IMERG

At least 156 people in Bangladesh were killed during the past week by landslides and floods caused by heavy rainfall. NASA calculated the amount of rain that has fallen using data from satellites.

Monsoon rainfall has been especially heavy over this area that includes southeastern Bangladesh, northeastern India and western Burma (Myanmar). This disaster follows quickly on the heels of deadly cyclone Mora which hit the same area a couple weeks ago.

This rainfall analysis was made at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland using NASA's near-real time Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data. GPM is the Global Precipitation Measurement mission satellite and constellation of satellites that are managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA.

Those IMERG data were assembled during the period from June 12 to 14, 2017. The heaviest rainfall accumulation estimates by IMERG were located over southeastern Bangladesh. IMERG estimates indicated that landslide inducing rainfall totals there were greater than 510 mm (20 inches).

Monsoon rainfall is expected to continue to effect the area. IMERG rainfall totals have been adjusted to reflect observed values in other similar extreme rainfall events.

For more information about GPM, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/gpm