Virgin Islands Satellite Photos - Before & After

If the vegetation changed this much, just think of what happened to the structures etc...

WOW, looks like there are no leaves left on the trees or even trees.

The vegetation will grow back... and slowly the islands will rebuild.

my guess is someone has photoshopped these pictures -- I'm not denying damage, but the water should be churned up and brown in the second image... don't believe everything on the internet... bon jour

SpaceCowboy9 - I really REALLY wish you were right but you are not. Please do not give anyone the idea that the reports they are hearing are exaggerated. This was a completely devastating storm. Power may not be restored for months in parts of the VI. The airport is still not open for commercial flights. FEMA and the military have been able to get in. Buildings were flattened. Lives were lost and the survivors will be forever changed. Yes, nature will repair itself over time but right now those satellite photos are accurate - not hardly a leaf left on anything but the ocean has returned to being blue. Would all Cruise Critic friends please pray for the VI, Florida and all the other Caribbean Islands so devastated.

my guess is someone has photoshopped these pictures -- I'm not denying damage, but the water should be churned up and brown in the second image... don't believe everything on the internet... bon jour

Hurricane Irma churned across the Atlantic Ocean in September 2017, battering several Caribbean islands before moving on to the Florida Keys and the U.S. mainland. As the clouds cleared over places like the Virgin Islands, the destruction became obvious even from space.

These natural-color images, captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show some of Irma’s effect on the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The views were acquired on August 25 and September 10, 2017, before and after the storm passed. They are among the few relatively cloud-free satellite images of the area so far.

The most obvious change is the widespread browning of the landscape. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Lush green tropical vegetation can be ripped away by a storm’s strong winds, leaving the satellite with a view of more bare ground. Also, salt spray whipped up by the hurricane can coat and desiccate leaves while they are still on the trees.

Irma passed the northernmost Virgin Islands on the afternoon of September 6. At the time, Irma was a category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles (295 kilometers) per hour. According to news reports, the islands saw “significant devastation.”

A close-up of Virgin Gorda gives a better sense of the changes. Note how some of the vegetation on the south and west of the island is a bit greener, likely because it was partly shielded from winds by the hills in the center. Differences in ocean color likely stem from differences in the ocean surface; rougher surfaces scatter more light, and appear brighter and lighter.

The destruction is also clearly visible on Barbuda. This small island in the eastern Caribbean was directly hit by the category-5 storm early on September 6. These images were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left image shows Barbuda on August 21, 2017. The right image shows the ravaged landscape on September 8.

In contrast, vegetation on Antigua appears relatively healthy and intact. With the storm’s center passing to the north, the island sustained less damage. Ground reports noted that by September 7, electricity had been restored to most of the island, and the international airport reopened.

• References
  
• National Hurricane Center (2017, September 6) Hurricane Irma Intermediate Advisory Number 30A. Accessed September 11, 2017.
  
• National Hurricane Center (2017, September 6) Hurricane Irma Intermediate Advisory Number 28A. Accessed September 11, 2017.
  
• National Public Radio (2017, September 7) Hurricane Irma Leaves Devastation Of ‘Epic Proportions’ In Caribbean.Accessed September 11, 2017.
  
• South Florida Caribbean News (2017, September 8) Antigua back to normal, relief under way in Barbuda. Accessed September 11, 2017.
  

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

Instrument(s): Landsat 8 - OLITerra - MODISAqua - MODIS

Thank you Hawkman402! I tried to post photos but couldn't get it right and I don't have time or energy to fuss with it now.

We're starting to better understand the magnitude of the destruction from descriptions that are coming out, and I'm sure ensuing photos will be very hard to look at...We've already seen many images and some videos from the islands of the BVI, and this is indeed heartbreaking for those of us who love these islands...

I'm just looking forward to re-visiting St Maarten next year (scheduled for the fourth time) and getting back to St Thomas (not scheduled, been twice)/St John (not scheduled, once-loved Trunk Bay).

As I said before -- I'm not denying damage....

NASA? you're kidding right? When it comes to space travel and exploration, they are a top notch organization, but when it comes to climate change, they know how to get funding - continue the myth of man made global cooling, warming, or is it climate change?

these photos don't even pass the smell test - why is the water gray before and blue after, then vice versa in the Virgin Gorda pix? Also, the Virgin Gorda lower island looks greener on the "after' picture.

Here's a coast guard video: http://heavy.com/news/2017/09/hurricane-irma-st-thomas-virgin-islands-damage-destruction-video/

sure, a lot of destruction, but what do you notice -- all the green grass....

these nasa photos were obviously posted to elicit a response and put forth an agenda...

Again -- not denying damage

I have no idea how the heck climate change came into this.

There are plenty of videos out there that show brownish mountain sides with swaths of uprooted trees.

You have a right to your opinion as do I. Time to move on and let other readers of the thread form there own opinion.

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I'm just looking forward to re-visiting St Maarten next year (scheduled for the fourth time) and getting back to St Thomas (not scheduled, been twice)/St John (not scheduled, once-loved Trunk Bay).

 

As I said before -- I'm not denying damage....

 

NASA? you're kidding right? When it comes to space travel and exploration, they are a top notch organization, but when it comes to climate change, they know how to get funding - continue the myth of man made global cooling, warming, or is it climate change?

 

these photos don't even pass the smell test - why is the water gray before and blue after, then vice versa in the Virgin Gorda pix? Also, the Virgin Gorda lower island looks greener on the "after' picture.

Here's a coast guard video: http://heavy.com/news/2017/09/hurricane-irma-st-thomas-virgin-islands-damage-destruction-video/

 

sure, a lot of destruction, but what do you notice -- all the green grass....

 

these nasa photos were obviously posted to elicit a response and put forth an agenda...

 

Again -- not denying damage

Seriously? You have to be trolling right or either that tinfoil hat is on extra tight.

The spectroradiometer on Aqua and Terra are not exactly the same as Terra is several years older. That's one of the reasons for the channel differences.

You can also find images easily on the web from DigitalGlobe 3 polar orbiters that are very similar showing the vegetative damage. Last I checked DigitalGlobe could care less about climate change.

Here's a quick link for you:

http://mashable.com/2017/09/12/hurricane-irma-islands-before-after-photos-reveal-destruction/#duYZIk1OpmqN

Also, the Virgin Gorda lower island looks greener on the "after' picture.

Nothing in the Virgin Gorda "after" picture looks greener than the "before" picture.

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Appreciate all of these details and updates on the U.S. Virgin Islands. From the New York Times Travel Section in the past couple of days, they have this headline: “After Irma: Caribbean Tourism, Island by Island”with these highlights for this area: “Tourism, particularly from cruise ships, is an economic mainstay here. Both St. John and St. Thomas took a beating. Hotels suffered major damage. Sugar Bay Resort and Spa, an all-inclusive hotel on St. Thomas, is planning to remain closed until next year. Windward Passage Hotel, overlooking Charlotte Amalie Harbor on St. Thomas, will be closed for six months. The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas and Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort are waiving hotel cancellation and change fees for certain arrival dates. Airlines are offering ticketed travelers area waivers through late October. Indeed, visitors are still being evacuated this week on airlines like Delta that would normally be bringing them in. No word yet on when scheduled service will resume. In an indication of just how bad things are on its sister islands, the governor on Sept. 10 encouraged families on St. Thomas and St. John to consider enrolling their children in public schools on St. Croix instead. According to Central Intelligence Agency data, the economy of the Virgin Islands, while reliant on tourism, is a bit more diverse than other Caribbean islands. Additional sources of income include rum exports, trade and services.”

Full story at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/travel/after-irma-caribbean-tourism-island-by-island.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2F travel&action=click&contentCollection=travel&regio n=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPl acement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean adventure that started in Barbados, here is the link for that live/blog. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.):

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 52,936 views for these postings.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvisitusvi%2Fvideos%2F10155225547528823%2F&show_text=0&width=560

https://www.facebook.com/visitusvi/

as you can see from the recent videos, st thomas is green and lush -- as I said before, these photos in the thread above were photoshopped and obviously posted to elicit a response and put forth an agenda..

again, didn't say there wasn't damage and the islands do have a long road to recovery.

anyway, I'm looking forward to getting back to the Caribbean next spring.