NASA Takes You Inside Hurricane Joaquin Live Shots

Animation of Tropical Storm Joaquin on September 29, 2015 right before it intensified into a hurricane. The camera moves in on the storm, and the visualization concludes with a 360 degree view around the storm. This video is also available on our YouTube channel. Animation of Tropical Storm Joaquin on September 29, 2015 right before it intensified into a hurricane. (This version does not include the 360 degree view of the storm at the end of the visualization) Print resolution still of GPM/GMI ground precipitation measurements. Colors in green represent low precipitation amounts. Colors in red are much higher amounts. Print resolution still of Tropical Storm Joaquin on September 29, 2015. Print resolution still of Tropical Storm Joaquin showing a sideview of the internal precipitation structure. The areas in blue are frozen precipitation. Areas in green and red are liquid precipitation. Color bar for frozen precipitation rates (ie, snow rates). Shades of cyan represent low amounts of frozen precipitation, whereas shades of purple represent high amounts of precipitation. 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. Joaquin became a tropical storm on the evening (EDT) of Monday, September 28th midway between the Bahamas and Bermuda and has now formed into a hurricane, the 3rd of the season--the difference is Joaquin could impact the US East Coast. GPM captured Joaquin Tuesday, September 29th at 21:39 UTC (5:39 pm EDT) as the hurricane moved slowly towards the west-southwest about 400 miles east of the Bahamas. At the time, Joaquin had been battling northerly wind shear, which was impeding the storm's ability to strengthen. However, compared to earlier in the day, the system was beginning to gain the upper hand as the shear began to relax its grip. At the time of this data visualization, Joaquin's low-level center of circulation was located further within the cloud shield, and the rain area was beginning to wrap farther around the center on the eastern side of the storm while showing signs of increased banding and curvature, a sure sign that Joaquin's circulation was intensifying. GPM shows a large area of very intense rain with rain rates ranging from around 50 to 132 mm/hr (~2 to 5 inches, shown in shades of red) just to the right of the center. This is a strong indication that large amounts of heat are being released into the storm's center, fueling its circulation and providing the means for its intensification. Associated with the area of intense rain is an area of tall convective towers, known as a convective burst, with tops reaching up to 16.3 km. These towers when located near the storm's core are a strong indication that the storm is poised to strengthen as they too reveal the release of heat into the storm.At the time this data was taken, the National Hurricane Center reported that Joaquin's maximum sustained winds had increased to 65 mph from 40 mph earlier in the day, making Joaquin a strong tropical storm but poised to become a hurricane, which did occur on September 30th at 8:00 am EDT. Related pages

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission produces NASA's most comprehensive global rain and snowfall product to date, called the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG). It is computed using data from the GPM constellation of satellites — a network of international satellites that currently includes the GPM Core Observatory, GCOM-W1, NOAA-18, NOAA-19, DMSP F-16, DMSP F-17, DMSP F-18, Metop-A, and Metop-B. The global IMERG dataset provides precipitation rates for the entire world every 30 minutes. Although the process to create the combined dataset is intensive, the GPM team creates a preliminary, near-real-time dataset of precipitation within several hours of data acquisition. This visualization shows the most currently available precipitation data from IMERG, depicting how rain and snowstorms move around the planet. As scientists work to understand all the elements of Earth's climate and weather systems, and how they could change in the future, GPM provides a major step forward in providing comprehensive and consistent measurements of precipitation for scientists and a wide variety of user communities. An animation of the most currently available global precipitation data from IMERG. Colorbar for frozen precipitation Color bar for liquid precipitation An image of the most currently available global precipitation data from IMERG. Related pages

GPM Constellation with clock GPM Constellation without clock Nine U.S. and international satellites will soon be united by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, a partnership co-led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). NASA and JAXA will provide the GPM Core satellite to serve as a reference for precipitation measurements made by this constellation of satellites, which will be combined into a single global dataset continually refreshed every three hours. While each partner satellite has its own mission objective, they all carry a type of instrument called a radiometer that measures radiated energy from rainfall and snowfall. The GPM Core satellite carries two instruments: a state-of-the-art radiometer called the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) and the first space-borne Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), which sees the 3D structure of falling rain and snow. The DPR and GMI work in concert to provide a unique database that will be used to improve the accuracy and consistency of measurements from all partner satellites, which will then be combined into the uniform global precipitation dataset. In this animation the orbit paths of the partner satellites of the GPM constellation fill in blue as the instruments pass over Earth. Rainfall appears light blue for light rain, yellow for moderate, and red for heavy rain. Partner satellites are traced in green and purple, and the GPM Core is traced in red. The GPM Core observatory is currently being built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It is scheduled to launch from Tanegashima space center in Japan in early 2014. Related pages