Earth  ID: 3558

Hurricane Ike Strengthens in the Gulf of Mexico on September 10, 2008

NASA's TRMM spacecraft observed this view of Hurricane Ike on September 10, 2008 as slammed into Cuba . At this time the storm was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 knots (86.25 mph) and a pressure reading of 963 millibars. At this time, TRMM's data and aircraft reports confirm the small inner eye is eroding as the outer bands, shown here as red towers, are becoming better defined. This could limit rapid intensity development in the very near term, but the storm is projected to strengthen before it makes landfall. The cloud cover in this animation is taken by TRMM's Visible and Infrared Scanner(VIRS) and the GOES spacecraft. The rain structure is taken by TRMM's Tropical Microwave Imager (TMI) and TRMM's Precitation Radar(PR) instruments. TRMM looks underneath of the storm's clouds to reveal the underlying rain structure. The colored isosurface uner the clouds show the rain seen by the PR instrument. This surface is colored according to cloud height where yellow represents 10 km thunderclouds and red represents 12 km more intense thunderclouds.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Scott Braun (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3558

Mission:
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission - TRMM

Data Used:
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.

This item is part of these series:
Hurricanes
TRMM 3D Hurricanes

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
SVS >> GOES
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0