Tracking Kilo from Hurricane to Typhoon

  • Released Thursday, September 17th, 2015
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:49PM
  • ID: 4358

Global visualization of Hurricane Kilo as it formed in the Eastern Pacific and moved across the international dateline finally diminishing in the Western Pacific near Japan. As Kilo progresses, GPM captures swathes of surface precipitation data throughout the storm's life cycle.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's core satellite captured Hurricane Kilo throughout its life cycle as Kilo slowly worked it's way westward across the Pacific Ocean. Kilo eventually crossed the international dateline where it officially changed from a "hurricane" to a "typhoon". Along it's way, Kilo put itself in the record books. Kilo was the 3rd named storm of the 2015 hurricane season to cross the international dateline. It was also a very long lasting storm persisting for 21 days, which made it a fairly rare event. Because it was such a long lasting storm, GPM was able to capture it several times throughout the course of it's life span. Such multiple captures of the same storm can help scientists better understand the development of hurricanes.

Close up animation of Hurricane Kilo as it moves from the Eastern Pacific to the Western Pacific, while GPM occassionally passes overhead capturing snapshots of surface precipitation as the storm evolves.

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.

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.

For More Information

See http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?12007

Credits

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Missions

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Series

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Datasets used in this visualization

CPC (Climate Prediction Center) Cloud Composite
Data Compilation Climate Prediction Center (CPC) 8/20/15 - 9/12/15

Global cloud cover from multiple satellites

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GPM Rain Rates (A.K.A. Surface Precipitation) (Collected with the GMI sensor)

Credit: Data provided by the joint NASA/JAXA GPM mission.

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