+ Visit NASA.gov + Advanced Search   + About the Server   + Animation List   + How to Use the Server Previous Animation Next Animation Hurricane Rita Sea Surface Temperature and Clouds This visualization shows the sea surface temperatures during Hurricane Rita. The data is from Septemeber 17 through 22, 2005. The colors on the ocean represent the sea surface temperatures, and satellite images of the hurricane clouds are laid over the temperatures to clearly show the hurricane positions. Orange and red depict regions that are 82 degrees F and higher, where the ocean is warm enough for hurricanes to form. Hurricane winds are sustained by the heat energy of the ocean, so the ocean is cooled as the hurricane passes and the energy is extracted to power the winds. The sea surface temperatures are 3-day moving averages based on the AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite, while the cloud images were taken by the Imager on the GOES-12 satellite.    Hurricane Rita clouds and sea surface temperatures (missing cloud time steps are skipped over) Duration: 8.0 seconds Available formats:   320x240 (30 fps) MPEG-1   967 KB   640x480 (30 fps) MPEG-1   3 MB   720x480 (29.97 fps) MPEG-2   5 MB   320x216     PNG           141 KB   720x486 (30 fps) Frames (SkipOnNoData) How to play our movies    Hurricane Rita clouds and sea surface temperatures (missing cloud time steps are shown by freezing last good data frame) Duration: 9.0 seconds Available formats:   320x240 (30 fps) MPEG-1   1 MB   640x480 (30 fps) MPEG-1   4 MB   720x480 (29.97 fps) MPEG-2   6 MB   320x216     PNG           141 KB   720x486 (30 fps) Frames (PauseOnNoData) How to play our movies    Hurricane Rita clouds and sea surface temperatures on Sep 21, 2005 at 20:15GMT Available formats:   2560 x 1920     TIFF 9 MB   320 x 240         JPEG 74 KB    Hurricane Rita clouds and sea surface temperatures on Sep 22, 2005 at 15:45GMT Available formats:   2560 x 1920     TIFF 8 MB   320 x 240         JPEG 73 KB    Hurricane Rita clouds and sea surface temperatures on Sep 23, 2005 at 13:45GMT Available formats:   2560 x 1920     TIFF 9 MB   320 x 240         JPEG 74 KB   160 x 80           PNG 27 KB   80 x 40             PNG   7 KB Animation Number: 3261 Animators: Greg Shirah (Lead)   Alex Kekesi   Horace Mitchell Studio: SVS Completed: 2005-09-22 Scientists: J. Marshall Shepherd (NASA/GSFC)   Jeff Halverson (JCET UMBC) Instruments: Aqua/AMSR-E   GOES/IR4   Terra/MODIS Data set: Blue Marble Data Collected: 2005/09/17 through 2005/09/22 Series: Hurricane Rita Keywords: DLESE >> Atmospheric science SVS >> Hurricane GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes GCMD >> EARTH SCIENCE >> Oceans >> Ocean Temperature >> Sea Surface Temperature     Please give credit for this visualization to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Back to Top + Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Reproduction Guidelines NASA Official: SVS Contact: Curator: