Earth ID: 4358

Tracking Kilo from Hurricane to Typhoon

Visualizations by Alex Kekesi Released on September 17, 2015

Global visualization of Hurricane Kilo as it formed in the Eastern Pacific and moved across the international dateline finally diminishing in the Western Pacific near Japan. As Kilo progresses, GPM captures swathes of surface precipitation data throughout the storm's life cycle.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's core satellite captured Hurricane Kilo throughout its life cycle as Kilo slowly worked it's way westward across the Pacific Ocean. Kilo eventually crossed the international dateline where it officially changed from a "hurricane" to a "typhoon". Along it's way, Kilo put itself in the record books. Kilo was the 3rd named storm of the 2015 hurricane season to cross the international dateline. It was also a very long lasting storm persisting for 21 days, which made it a fairly rare event. Because it was such a long lasting storm, GPM was able to capture it several times throughout the course of it's life span. Such multiple captures of the same storm can help scientists better understand the development of hurricanes.

Close up animation of Hurricane Kilo as it moves from the Eastern Pacific to the Western Pacific, while GPM occassionally passes overhead capturing snapshots of surface precipitation as the storm evolves.

Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation.

For More Information

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?12007

Visualization Credits

Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Visualizer
Gail Skofronick Jackson (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
George Huffman (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
Dalia B Kirschbaum (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer
Rani Gran (NASA/GSFC): Producer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4358

Missions:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)
Hurricanes

Data Used:

CPC (Climate Prediction Center) Cloud Composite

Data Compilation - Climate Prediction Center (CPC) - 8/20/15 - 9/12/15

Global cloud cover from multiple satellites

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GPM/GMI/Surface Precipitation also referred to as: Rain Rates

8/23/15 01:31Z, 8/25/15 01:21Z, 8/31/15 23:56Z, 9/7/15 22:31Z, 9/9/15 22:21Z

Credit:
Data provided by the joint NASA/JAXA GPM mission.

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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.

This item is part of this series:
GPM Animations

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
DLESE >> Natural hazards
SVS >> Tropical Storm
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Typhoons
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation >> Rain
NASA Science >> Earth
NASA Earth Science Focus Areas >> Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics

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