Earth  ID: 3253

Hurricane Katrina Hot Towers

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on September 15, 2005
NASA's TRMM spacecraft allows us to look under Hurricane Katrina's clouds to see the rain structure on August 28, 2005 at 0324Z. Spikes in the rain structure known as 'hot towers' indicate storm intensity. 'Hot Towers' refers to tall cumulonimbus clouds and has been seen as one of the mechanisms by which the intensity of a tropical cyclone is maintained. Because of the size (1-20 km) and short duration (30 minute to 2 hours) of these hot towers, studies of these events have been limited to descriptive studies from aircraft observations, although a few have attempted to use the presence of hot towers in a predictive capacity. Before TRMM, no data set existed that could show globally and definitively the presence of these hot towers in cyclone systems. Aircraft radar studies of individual storms lack global coverage. Global microwave or Infrared sensor observations do not provide the needed spatial resolution. With a ground resolution of 5 km, the TRMM Precipitation Radar provided the needed data set for examining the predictive value of hot towers in cyclone intensification.
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Energy-releasing deep convective clouds (to 16 km) in the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina on August 28 occurred while the storm was intensifying to a category 5 classification.
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TRMM is the only satellite that can provide rain structure information over open oceans. Most tropical cyclones breed and intensify in these locations.
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Two deep towers are observed by the TRMM spacecraft. The tower in the center is located in the hurricane's eye wall.
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This image is the same as the above image with the clouds completely removed
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Hurricane Katrina's vertical rain structure in kilometers. The high towers are shown in red.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Jeff Halverson (JCET UMBC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Science Paper:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0112towerclouds.html

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3253

Mission:
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission - TRMM

Data Used:
TRMM/PR
2005/08/28
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TRMM/TMI
2005/08/28
view all stories where this data set is used
TRMM/VIRS
2005/08/28
view all stories where this data set is used
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 these series:
Hurricanes
TRMM 3D Hurricanes
Hurricane Katrina

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
SVS >> Hurricane Frances
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation

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