2008 Hurricane Season with Sea Surface Temperature

This animation depicts the 2008 hurricane season and the corresponding water temperature, for the dates 6/1/08 through 11/30/08. The colors on the ocean represent the sea surface temperatures, and satellite images of the storm clouds are laid over the temperatures to clearly show the positions of the storms. Hurricane winds are sustained by the heat energy of the warm surface waters of the ocean. As a hurricane passes over the warm surface it churns the water, drawing the deeper, cooler water to the surface. This mixing can appear in the animation as a blue pool trailing the hurricane. The sea surface temperature data was taken by the AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite, while the cloud images were taken by the Imager on the GOES-12 satellite.