Visualizations by
Lori Perkins
Released on September 14, 2005
NASA's TRMM spacecraft is used to understand Hurricane Katrina. TRMM observed this view of Hurricane Katrina just before the storm made landfall on August 29, 2005. Katrina remains an extremely large and dangerous hurricane. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 105 miles from the storm's center. Coastal storm surge flooding of 18 to 22 feet above normal tide levels are expected. 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.