Puttalam district in North Western Sri Lanka is currently facing severe flooding, landslides and rockfalls, caused by heavy monsoon rains across the region. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured an image over the region yesterday, 30 November 2025, as well an image one month ago, showing the extent of flooding.
The images are taken using false-colour in the near-infrared channel. Sediment appears green/brown, cleaner water appears dark blue/black, and vegetation in red.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites in the same orbit but on opposite sides of the globe. Each satellite carries an innovative wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands.
Orbiting at an altitude of 786 km, the mission passes over the same location on Earth every five days and is often called upon to provide data to support emergency reponse efforts. The Disasters Charter, which turns 25 this year, has been activated to provide satellite data over Sri Lanka.