Hurricane Isabel Genesis
This animation follows Hurricane Isabel (2003) from its birthplace in the Ethiopian Highlands of East Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean, to the United States. Atlantic hurricanes are often formed as winds over the Gulf of Aden intersect with the Ethiopian Highlands. This animation zooms into the Ethiopian Highlands and shows several storms being formed. Then, the animation dissolves in a reticle to focus in specifically on the formation of Hurricane Isabel. The reticle follows the storm across Africa and into the Atlantic. The path and intensity of Hurricane Isabel is depicted by a colored path. Blue represents the genesis of the storm. Green is a Tropical Depression where winds are less than 39 miles per hour. Yellow is a Tropical Storm where winds are between 39 and 73 miles per hour. Red is a category 1 hurricane where winds are between 74 and 95 miles per hour. Light Red is a category 2 hurricane with winds between 96 and 110 miles per hour. Magenta is a category 3 hurricane with winds between 111 and 130 miles per hour. Light magenta is a category 4 hurricane with winds between 131 and 154 miles per hour. White represents a category 5 hurricane where winds are greater than 155 miles per hour. Note how Isabel gains size and speed over the warm waters of the Atlantic.
This animation follows Hurricane Isabel (2003) from its birthplace in the Ethiopian Highlands of East Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean, to the United States. Atlantic hurricanes are often formed as winds over the Gulf of Aden intersect with the Ethiopian Highlands.
This is where Hurricane Isabel was born on August 25, 2003. The movie follows the storm from this point until it makes landfall on September 18, 2003 in North Carolina.
The Ethiopian Highlands in East Africa is the birthplace for many Atlantic hurricanes.
Hurricane Isabel is classified as a Tropical Storm on September 6, 2003.
Hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina on September 18, 2003.
Rainfall Colorbar
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Scientist
- Jeff Halverson (JCET UMBC)
Release date
This page was originally published on Friday, September 10, 2004.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:56 PM EDT.
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
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[GMS-4: VISSR]
ID: 20 -
[GOES-8: Imager]
ID: 30 -
[GOES-9: Imager]
ID: 32 -
[METEOSAT-6: VISSR]
ID: 57 -
[SRTM: SIR-C]
ID: 92 -
HURDAT
ID: 281 -
3-hour Rainmap (3B4XRT) [TRMM and DMSP: SSM/I and TMI]
ID: 526This dataset can be found at: http://cics.umd.edu/~msapiano/PEHRPP/3b42rt.html
See all pages that use this dataset -
Infrared Global Geostationary Composite
ID: 579Satellite Data Used to Produce WORLD-IR14KM Mosaic: GOES-11 - Southern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR, Northern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR; GOES-12 - Southern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR, Northern hemisphere Band 4 10.7 um IR; Meteosat-7 - Band 8 11.5 um IR; Meteosat-9 - Band 9 10.8 um IR; MTSAT-1R - Band 2 10.8 um IR; NOAA-15 - Band 4 11 micron IR; NOAA-16 - Band 4 11 micron IR; NOAA-17 - Band 4 11 micron IR
This dataset can be found at: http://ghrc.msfc.nasa.gov/uso/ds_catalog/globalir.html
See all pages that use this dataset
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.