Earth  ID: 3550

Tropical Storm Hanna's Towering Thunderclouds

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on September 3, 2008
NASA's TRMM spacecraft observed this view of Tropical Storm Hanna on September 1, 2008 at 1418 UTC (10:18 EDT). At this time the storm was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 50 knots (57.5 mph) and a pressure reading of 994 millibars. Three hours later, The National Hurricane Center upgraded this storm to a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 knots and a pressure reading of 984 millibars. TRMM documented one reason for this rapid intensification - strong thunderstorms with heights of over 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) in the eastern eyewall of this tropical storm. 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) and TRMM's Precitation Radar(PR) instruments. TRMM looks underneath of the storm's clouds to reveal the underlying rain structure. The rain structure is colored by the height of the clouds.
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TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) instrument observed this 17 kilometer tower in the eatern eyewall as Tropical Storm Hanna was intensifying to a category 1 hurricane on September 1, 2008.
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Energy-releasing deep convective clouds (over 17 km) in the eyewall of Tropical Storm Hanna on September 1, 2008 occurred while the storm was intensifying to a category 1 hurricane.
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Tropical Storm Hanna pounded the Bahamas and Hispaniola with heaavy rains.
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Tropical Storm Hanna's vertical rain structure in kilometers. The high towers are shown in red.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Scott Braun (NASA/GSFC): 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/3550

Mission:
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission - TRMM

Data Used:
TRMM/VIRS
2008/09/01
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TRMM/TMI
2008/09/01
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TRMM/PR
2008/09/01
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GOES
2008/09/01
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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 these series:
Hurricanes
TRMM 3D Hurricanes

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
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