Winter rains and possibly melting snow from Iran's Zagros Mountains have begun to fill the marshes and shallow lakes of Southern and Eastern Iraq. Flooding in this region is an annual affair, though typically, the floods peak in April and May when spring snowmelt flows out of Iran. These true- and false-color MODIS images show that water levels had already begun to rise two months in to the rainy season. Winter rains usually run from December to April, and these images were acquired by the Aqua satellite on February 8, 2004.

Credit: Jacques Descloitres MODIS Rapid Response Team,
NASA GSFC

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