Tornado Rips Through Maryland Click Image to Enlarge  (JPG) (248 KB) ( 1,184 x 800 )

On Sunday, April 28, a category F5 tornado cut an east-west path through La Plata, Maryland, killing 5 and injuring more than 100. These two images acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite show a 6-by-17.8-kilometer (3.7-by-11.1-mile) area centered on the town. The top image was acquired on May 12, 2001, and the bottom on May 3, 2002. The ASTER bands 3-2-1 used for the image portray vegetation in red, and bare fields and urban areas in blue-green. The dark turquoise swath cutting across the 2002 image is the track of the tornado, where the vegetation was ripped up and removed. This image is located at 38.5 degrees north latitude, 77 degrees west longitude.