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Mumbai, Mangalore at high risk of flooding: NASA

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Nov 17, 2017, 06:08 AM IST
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An analysis of rainfall data from November 9 to 16, 2015 showed 21.7 inches of rain drenched India's southeastern coast in the state of Tamil Nadu. Over 7.9 inches fell in large areas of southeastern India and northern Sri Lanka. Photograph:(Others)

Mangalore in Karnataka and Mumbai are at a high risk of encountering floods due to melting ice caps, a NASA report said. 

In the past week up to 550 mm (21.7 inches) of rain poured over India's southeastern coast in the state of Tamil Nadu, NASA said in its website. Total rainfall in southeastern India was measured at around 200 mm (7.9 inches). 

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center informed that computer models indicate that rains are expected to move in a northerly direction, wind speed is predicted at approximately 37 to 46.3 kilometers per hour, and with a minimum central pressure near 1004 millibars, NASA confirmed.

The low-pressure continued to produce heavy rain in Tamil Nadu and in remote areas over south coastal Andhra Pradesh, NASA revealed. 

Over the next 100 years, the glacial melt may potentially rise Mangalore's sea levels by 15.98cm as and to 15.26cm in Mumbai and 10.65cm for New York, according to a study carried in the journal Science Advances.  

The insights are based on a forecasting tool, gradient fingerprint mapping (GFM) which help to predict how water will be “redistributed” globally.

“This provides, for each city, a picture of which glaciers, ice sheets, and ice caps are of specific importance,” researchers said.

“As cities and countries attempt to build plans to mitigate flooding, they have to be thinking about 100 years in the future and they want to assess risk in the same way that insurance companies do,” said Erik Ivins, senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible image of rainfall hugging the Indian coast. (Others)

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Moreover, the three prime characteristics which play a part in influencing “the sea-level fingerprint,” the pattern of sea-level change around the world consist of gravity, the push-pull influence of ice and rotation of the plant itself, said a study published in the journal Science Advances, according to reports.