Visualizations by
Lori Perkins
Released on September 21, 2005
NASA's TRMM spacecraft is used to understand Hurricane Rita. TRMM observed this view of Hurricane Rita just before the storm made landfall on September 20, 2005. The cloud cover is taken by TRMM's Visible and Infrared Scanner(VIRS) and the GOES spacecraft. The rain structure is taken by TRMM's Tropical Microwave Imager (TMI). It looks underneath of the storm's clouds to reveal the underlying rain structure. Blue represents areas with at least 0.25 inches of rain per hour. Green shows at least 0.5 inches of rain per hour. Yellow is at least 1.0 inches of rain and red is at least 2.0 inches of rain per hour.