Earth  ID: 3306

2005 Hurricanes: Clouds and Sea Surface Temperature

Visualizations by Greg Shirah Released on April 12, 2006
This visualization shows sea surface temperatures during most of the 2005 hurricane season. Overlaid are infrared cloud data, storm track data, and storm name labels. Warm ocean waters provide the heat energy that fuels hurricanes. Notice the correspondence between the storm tracks and the sea surface temperature response; this is particulary noticeable for hurricanes Dennis, Emily, and Katrina, where the hurricanes churn up the ocean so that cooler water rises to the surface. This version shows the entire Atlantic hurricane region and depicts all of the 2005 hurricanes except Zeta, which appeared at the very end of the year.
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The 2005 hurricane season showing sea surface temperatures, clouds, and named storm tracks. Cloud data comes from GOES-12 and sea surface temperature comes from AMSR-E.

This product is available through our Web Map Service.
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The legend for sea surface temperature. The color scale ranges from dark blue for areas below 15C to dark red for regions above 35C.

Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Animator
Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Animator
J. Marshall Shepherd (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Jeff Halverson (JCET UMBC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3306

Data Used:
GOES-12/Imager
2005/06/01 - 2005/12/12
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Aqua/AMSR-E/Sea Surface Temperature
2005/06/01 - 2005/12/12
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Hurricane/Tropical Data
Database - Unisys - 2005/06/01 - 2005/12/12
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TOPEX/Poseidon/Sea Surface Height Anomaly
2005/06/01 - 2005/12/12
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Infrared Global Geostationary Composite
Data Compilation - National Center for Environmental Prediction/Aviation Weather Center (NCEP/AWS) - 2005/06/01 - 2005/12/12
Satellite 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
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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.

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
SVS >> GOES
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0