Satellite before and after

Eastern Australia floods 2022: Lismore and the Northern Rivers, New South Wales

Heavy multi-day rain at the end of February 2022 flooded coastal towns in south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales.

The river plains around Lismore, north-east New South Wales, Australia · Late February to March 2022 · Flood · Australia

Compare the imagery

Drag the divider, or focus it and use the arrow keys. Left of the divider is 10 Feb 2022, right is 2 Mar 2022, 20 days apart.

The interactive comparison needs JavaScript. Both images are shown below.

In this false-colour view water is dark blue to black, vegetation is bright green, bare ground is tan, freshly burned land is red-brown and cloud is cyan.

The two images

Satellite image of The river plains around Lismore, north-east New South Wales, Australia on 10 Feb 2022, before the event, in false colour (MODIS bands 7-2-1).
Before: Terra, 10 Feb 2022 · Open in NASA Worldview · original from GIBS
Satellite image of The river plains around Lismore, north-east New South Wales, Australia on 2 Mar 2022, after the event, in false colour (MODIS bands 7-2-1).
After: Aqua, 2 Mar 2022 · Open in NASA Worldview · original from GIBS

What the images show

On 10 February the land between the ranges and the coast is green. On 2 March dark floodwater spreads across the low river plains south of Lismore, towards the coast.

About the event

  • NASA Earth Observatory published satellite images of the flooding comparing 10 February and 2 March 2022 — the same two dates as this case.
  • The rain continued into March, and Australia declared a national emergency on 9 March 2022.

Limits of this comparison

The before-image is from Terra and the after-image from Aqua. Scattered cloud covers much of the 2 March image, so some flooded ground is hidden.

Each image is one satellite pass at about 250 metres a pixel. It shows where water or burned land is visible from space on that day; it does not measure damage, and cloud or haze can hide what is underneath.

Dates were chosen by checking the imagery on both satellites for several days either side and keeping the clearest pass; the two images come from different satellites carrying the same instrument. Both use the same layer, MODIS Corrected Reflectance, bands 7-2-1.

Sources

We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Comparison slider: leaflet-side-by-side (MIT licence). Case last updated 13 Sep 2026.

Questions

What does the satellite image of The river plains around Lismore, north-east New South Wales, Australia show?

On 10 February the land between the ranges and the coast is green. On 2 March dark floodwater spreads across the low river plains south of Lismore, towards the coast.

When were the two satellite images taken?

The before-image was taken by Terra, 10 Feb 2022 and the after-image by Aqua, 2 Mar 2022, 20 days apart.

What can this before-and-after comparison not show?

The before-image is from Terra and the after-image from Aqua. Scattered cloud covers much of the 2 March image, so some flooded ground is hidden. Each image is one satellite pass at about 250 metres a pixel. It shows where water or burned land is visible from space on that day; it does not measure damage, and cloud or haze can hide what is underneath.

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