TRMM Microwave Brightness Temperature Progression During Hurricane Katrina: Horizontal Polarization

  • Released Wednesday, October 19, 2005
  • Updated Friday, January 16, 2015 at 12:10PM
  • ID: 3248

The TMI instrument on the TRMM satellite measures microwaves emitted from the Earth's land and water. By comparing emission from different microwave frequencies, the characteristics of ice and water in the atmosphere can be determined. For example, 85 GHz microwaves are scattered by ice crystals in tropical cyclones, making cyclone rain bands appear 'colder' than the surrounding areas. By comparing 85 GHz temperatures in different polarizations with other frequency band measurements, accurate measurements of rainfall in the atmosphere can be made. This animation builds up four days of global TMI 85 GHz measurements. Hurricane Katrina was in the Gulf of Mexico at the time and clearly shows up in the measurements.
Color bar for brightness temperature.

Color bar for brightness temperature.

For More Information

See http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

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Datasets used in this visualization

TRMM 85GHz Brightness Temperature (Collected with the TMI sensor)

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.


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