Category 4 Hurricane Matthew on October 2, 2016

  • Released Sunday, January 22, 2017
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This data visualization tracks Hurricane Matthew as it intensifies to a Category 5 Hurricane and stops as Matthew turns into a Category 4 Hurricane on October 2, 2016. GPM's GPROF and DPR data swathes are then revealed to show the internal precipitation structure of this strong storm. After most of the DPR data is pulled away, a static 3D wind field is then shown to reveal the flow of air within the structure. DPR is then draped back over the wind fields to show the two datasets together. The winds are derived from GEOS-5.

NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite flew over Hurricane Matthew as the category 4 hurricane on October 2, 2016 shortly after it downgraded from a category 5 hurricane.

The GPM Core Observatory carries two instruments that show the location and intensity of rain and snow, which defines a crucial part of the storm structure – and how it will behave. The GPM Microwave Imager sees through the tops of clouds to observe how much and where precipitation occurs, and the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar observes precise details of precipitation in 3-dimensions.

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.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio Data provided by the joint NASA/JAXA GPM mission.

This page was originally published on Sunday, January 22, 2017.
This page was last updated on Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 10:31 PM EST.

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