Why NASA Studies Hurricanes. Soundbites From Owen Kelley

Credits

• Scientist

  • Owen Kelley (George Mason University) [Lead]

• Producers

  • Haley Reed (ADNET Systems, Inc.) [Lead]
  • Michelle Handleman (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
  • Courtney A. Lee (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
  • Marlee Baldridge (NASA/GSFC Higher Education)

• Technical support

  • Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Related Pages

• Related

  • 

    ID: 4694 Visualization

    GPM Satellite observes powerful super Typhoon Yutu hitting Northern Marianas

    Oct. 26th, 2018
    (updated Nov. 15th, 2023)

    GPM passed over Super Typhoon Yutu on October 24th at 11:07 a.m. EDT . As the camera moves in on the storm, DPR's volumetric view of the storm is revealed. A slicing plane moves across the volume to display precipitation rates throughout the storm. Shades of green to red represent liquid precipitation. Frozen precipitation is shown in cyan and purple.This video is also available on our YouTube channel. || Yutu.2320_print.jpg (1024x576) [145.9 KB] || Yutu.2320_searchweb.png (320x180) [100.2 KB] || Yutu.2320_thm.png (80x40) [7.8 KB] || frames/1920x1080_16x9_30p/yutu/ (1920x1080) [64.0 KB] || Yutu_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [102.3 MB] || Yutu_1080p30.webm (1920x1080) [7.7 MB] || captions_silent.27091.en_US.srt [43 bytes] || captions_silent.27091.en_US.vtt [56 bytes] ||

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  • 

    ID: 4685 Visualization

    Inside Hurricane Maria in 360°

    Oct. 4th, 2018
    (updated June 16th, 2023)

    Tour Hurricane Maria in a whole new way! Late on September 17, 2017 (10:08 p.m. EDT) Category 1 Hurricane Maria was strengthening in the Atlantic Ocean when the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory flew over it. The Dual Frequency Precipitation Radar, measuring in a narrow band over the storm center, shows 3-D estimates of rain, with snow at higher altitudes. The tall "hot towers" characteristic of deepening hurricanes are actually topped by snow! Surface rainfall rates estimated by the GPM Microwave Imager paint the surface over a wider swath. During the tour, you'll see the radar-observed rain intensities displayed three different ways in various parts of the storm. Then, for the first time you'll see estimates of the precipitation particle sizes, which the GPM DPR is uniquely capable of showing, and which provide important insights into storm processes.GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA. ||

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  • 

    ID: 13079 Produced Video

    Inside Hurricane Maria in 360°

    Oct. 4th, 2018
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    Two days before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the NASA-Japan Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite captured a 3-D view of the storm. At the time Maria was a Category 1 hurricane. The 3-D view reveals the processes inside the hurricane that would fuel the storm’s intensification to a category 5 within 24 hours.For the first time in 360-degrees, this data visualization takes you inside the hurricane. The precipitation satellite has an advanced radar that measures both liquid and frozen water. The brightly colored dots show areas of rainfall, where green and yellow show low rates and red and purple show high rates. At the top of the hurricane, where temperatures are colder, blue and purple dots show light and heavy frozen precipitation. The colored areas below the dots show how much rain is falling at the surface. Created by: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio and NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterData Sources:• NASA/GPM Dual Precipitation Radar (DPR) precipitation rate and drop size distribution data• NASA/GPM GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) ground precipitation data• NASA/Bluemarble land imagery• NOAA/GOES16 cloud data• Hipparcos/Telescope/Tycho 2 Catalogue ||

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  • 

    ID: 4682 Visualization

    GPM Captures Super Typhoon Mangkhut Approaching The Philippines

    Sept. 19th, 2018
    (updated Nov. 15th, 2023)

    At nearly the same time that the US East Coast was experiencing the arrival of Hurricane Florence, a much more powerful storm was also arriving half a world away in the Philippines—Super Typhoon Mangkhut. While the slow-moving Florence arrived as a Category 1 hurricane that brought record flooding to the Carolinas, less than 7 hours later Mangkhut (known as Ompong in the Philippines) made landfall on the northern main island of Luzon as a full on Category 5 super typhoon with sustained winds reported at 165 mph. The visualization starts with a view of Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) precipitation rates from 15:11 UTC (11:11 pm PST) 12 September to 15:41 UTC (11:41 pm PST) 13 September 2018 as the storm was making its way across the Philippine Sea headed for Luzon. Before entering the Philippine Sea, Mangkhut passed just north of Guam on the evening of the 10th as a Category 2 typhoon with sustained winds reported at 105 mph by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) causing widespread power outages. The next day on the 11th as it entered the eastern Philippine Sea, Mangkhut underwent a rapid intensification cycle wherein the storm’s intensity shot from Category 2 on the afternoon of the 10th (local time) to Category 5 with sustained winds estimated at 160 mph by JTWC by the evening of the 11th (local time). Mangkhut is estimated to have reached its peak intensity at 18:00 UTC on the 12th (2:00 am PST 13 September) with maximum sustained winds estimated at 180 mph by JTWC, making it the strongest tropical cyclone of the year thus far.At the start of the visualization, Mangkhut was an extremely powerful Category 5 super typhoon and just approaching its peak intensity. Over the next 24 hours, Mangkhut’s intensity leveled out such that when the GPM core satellite over flew the storm, Mangkhut’s peak intensity was estimated at 165 mph, a still very powerful Category 5 storm. The end of the visualization shows the surface rainfall within Mangkhut as well as a 3D flyby of the storm courtesy of the GPM core satellite, which passed over the storm at around 15:40 UTC (11:40 pm PST) on the 13th. At the surface, a distinct eye is present surrounded by a large area of very heavy to intense rain (shown in dark red and magenta). Further out, heavy rain bands are rotating counter clockwise around the storm’s center. The flyby shows a 3D rendering of the radar structure of Mangkhut using data collected from GPM’s Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar or DPR. At the heart of the storm surrounding the eye is a ring of elevated echo tops associated with Mangkhut’s eyewall. The strong symmetry and continuity of the ring is consistent with an intense tropical cyclone and suggests no inhibiting effects such as dry air or wind shear are affecting the storm. In fact, after these images were taken, Mangkhut would continue on to strike the northern part of Luzon at the same estimated intensity, becoming the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. So far the storm is being blamed for at least 95 fatalities in the Philippines, many due to a large landslide around the town of Itogon. After crossing Luzon, Mangkhut continued on to strike Hong Kong with winds reported at 121 mph before dissipating over mainland China, where it is being blamed for 6 fatalities. GPM data is part of the toolbox of satellite data used by forecasters and scientists to understand how storms behave. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Current and future data sets are available with free registration to users from NASA Goddard's Precipitation Processing Center website. ||

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  • 

    ID: 4681 Visualization

    GOES and GPM Capture Florence Trying to Intensify Over the Atlantic

    Sept. 12th, 2018
    (updated Nov. 15th, 2023)

    Hurricane Florence originally formed from an African Easterly wave that emerged off the west coast of Africa back on the 30th of August. When it reached the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands the next day, it was organized enough to become a tropical depression. The following day the depression strengthened enough to become a tropical storm and Florence was born on the 1st of September. Over the next 3 days, Florence gradually strengthened as it moved in a general west-northwest direction into the central Atlantic. Then, on the 4th of September, Florence began to rapidly intensify. By the morning of the 5th, Florence was a Category 3 hurricane before reaching Category 4 intensity later that afternoon with maximum sustained winds estimated at 130 mph by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). At this point, Florence became the victim of increasingly strong southwesterly wind shear, which greatly weakened the storm all the way back down to a tropical storm the by evening of the 6th.The following GOES-East Infrared (IR) loop shows Florence from 17:54 UTC (1:54 pm EDT) 6 September to 19:27 UTC (3:27 pm EDT) 7 September when it was struggling against the strong southwesterly wind shear in the Central Atlantic. A very interesting looking feature is the arc-shaped cloud that propagates outward from the storm towards the west. This cloud feature is occurring at upper-levels and is likely tied to a gravity wave propagating outward from an area of intense convection that erupted from deep within the storm. When the tops of these smaller scale storms within a storm reach the upper troposphere, they can trigger gravity waves. As these waves progagate outward they can enhance cloud formation where they induce rising motion and erode cloud where they induce downward motion or subsidence. As this arc-shaped cloud is able to propagate outward uniformly from the center, it must be occurring above the shear layer. Compensating areas of subsidence can also surround the strong rising motion occurring within the tall convective clouds. This can help to erode surrounding clouds and may be contributing to the clearing that occurs between the arc-shaped cloud and the mainarea of convection.The end of the loop shows surface rainfall and a 3D flyby of Florence courtesy of the GPM core satellite, which passed over the storm at around 19:21 UTC (3:21 pm EDT) on the 7th. At the surface, two areas of intense rain (shown in magenta) reveal the presence of two areas of strong thunderstorms within Florence north and northeast of the center. The flyby shows a 3D rendering of the radar structure of the storm. The darker blue tower indicates an area of deep convection that has penetrated well over 10 km high and is associated with the southernmost area of intense rain just north of the center. It is these areas of deep convection that fuel the storm by releasing heat, known as latent heat, mainly from condensation, near the core. Although it would be nearly 2 days before Florence re-gained hurricane intensity, these convective towers are what helped Florence to survive the effects of the wind shear and eventually grow back into a Category 4 hurricane.GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.Caption by Stephen Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and Joe Munchak (GSFC). ||

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