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Hurricane Loke Viewed By GPM

Hurricane Loke Viewed By GPM
This year the Eastern Pacific Ocean continues to spawn significant tropical cyclones. Hurricane Loke formed southwest of the Hawaiian Islands on August 21, 2015 but Loke has not been a threat to Hawaii because it intensified to hurricane strength while moving well west of Hawaii over the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. The GPM core observatory satellite measured precipitation within the hurricane as it flew above the most powerful storms in the hurricane on August 2015 at 0116 UTC. GPM's Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) measured rain falling at over 160 mm (6.3 inches) per hour in

How Does NASA Study Hurricanes?

How Does NASA Study Hurricanes?
Monday, August 17, 2015
Hurricanes are the most powerful weather event on Earth. NASA’s expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) use a variety of tools to predict these storms’ paths. These scientists need a wealth of data to accurately forecast hurricanes. NASA satellites, computer modeling, instruments, aircraft and field missions contribute to this mix of information to give scientists a...
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Hurricane Hilda Weakening, Heads Toward Hawaii

Three days ago Hilda was a category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with winds of 120 kts (138 mph). Hilda has been weakening and had winds of about 80 kts (92 mph) when the GPM core observatory satellite passed above on August 11, 2015 at 0411 UTC (August 10, 2015 at 6:11 PM HST). Rainfall data from GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument is shown overlaid on a 0400 UTC August 11, 2015 GOES-WEST Infrared image. GPM's GMI revealed that storms north of hurricane Hilda's eye were dro
Three days ago Hilda was a category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with winds of 120 kts (138 mph). Hilda has been weakening and had winds of about 80 kts (92 mph) when the GPM core observatory satellite passed above on August 11, 2015 at 0411 UTC (August 10, 2015 at 6:11 PM HST). Rainfall data from GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument is shown overlaid on a 0400 UTC August 11, 2015 GOES-WEST Infrared image. GPM's GMI revealed that storms north of hurricane Hilda's eye were dropping rain at a rate of over 53.6 mm (2.2 inches) per hour. Hilda's future positions

Hurricane Guillermo Heads Toward Hawaii

Hurricane Guillermo Heads Toward Hawaii
On July 29, 2015 tropical depression Nine-E formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean well southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. The tropical depression was in an area of warm ocean water which helped the tropical cyclone blossom into tropical storm Guillermo early on July 30, 2015. Guillermo is a hurricane today and is headed over the open waters of the Pacific Ocean toward the west-northwest. In about a week Guillermo may affect the Hawaiian Islands as a tropical storm. On July 31, 2015 at 0556 UTC Guillermo was about 319 km (~590 Nautical Miles) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii when the

IMERG Measures Record Rainfall From Hurricane Delores Remnants

IMERG Measures Record Rainfall From Hurricane Delores Remnants
Moisture pumping into southern California and the Desert Southwest from the remnants of hurricane Dolores has caused record July rainfall. This rainfall may provide some drought relief to the state of California that has been in the grip of exceptional drought conditions. Heavy flooding caused an interstate 10 bridge collapse on Sunday July 19, 2015 forcing closure of this main roadway between Southern California and Phoenix, Arizona. Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate the extreme amount of rain that fell during the past week in that

Hurricane Blanca Seen Traveling to Baja

Hurricane Blanca Seen Traveling to Baja
After moving very little for the last few days hurricane Blanca has again started to move toward the Baja Peninsula. The GPM core observatory satellite passed directly over Blanca on June 4, 2015 at 2056 UTC when the hurricane had maximum sustained wind speeds of about 85 kts (~98 mph). GPM discovered that Blanca had very little convective rainfall in the center of a large cloudy eye. The satellite's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (Ku Band) instruments measured rain falling at a rate of over 85mm (3.3 inches) per hour in a band of powerful storms moving around

GPM Flys Above Subtropical Storm Ana

GPM Flys Above Subtropical Storm ANA
During the past few days subtropical storm Ana was developing off the southeastern coast of the United States. Yesterday and today the GPM core observatory satellite had two good views of subtropical storm Ana. The image above shows the developing subtropical storm on May 7, 2015 at 1636 UTC (12:36 PM EDT). This GPM pass occurred a little over 10 hours before the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued their first advisory at 0300 UTC ( 11:00 PM EDT). This image shows rainfall derived from GPM's Ku/Ka-band Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and a multi-channel GPM Microwave Imager (GMI)

TRMM Mission Comes to an End

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In 1997 when the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, was launched, its mission was scheduled to last just a few years. Now, 17 years later, the TRMM mission has come to an end. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) stopped TRMM’s science operations and data collection on April 8 after the spacecraft depleted its fuel reserves.

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Hurricane Vance Weakening, Heading Toward Mexico

Hurricane Vance Weakening, Heading Toward Mexico
The TRMM satellite flew over hurricane Vance on November 2014 at 0953 UTC. Rainfall derived from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) data collected with that view are shown overlaid on a 1000 UTC GOES-WEST image. This analysis showed that Vance had a large area of heavy rainfall near the center of the hurricane. Some intense storms in that area were dropping rain at a rate of over 50mm/hr (almost 2 inches) per hour. Vance's power peaked late on November 3, 2014 with winds of about 95 kts (about 109 mph). Vertical wind shear had started to weaken the hurricane at the time of this view but Vance was

Hurricane Ana Bypasses But Soaks Hawaiian Islands

Hurricane Ana Bypasses But Soaks Hawaiian Islands
Fortunately for Hawaii hurricane Ana passed to the south of the islands. This meant that for the third time this year the Hawaiian Islands were spared destructive hurricane force winds. However, Ana caused occasionally heavy rain over much of the area and was responsible for flash floods on the the big island (Hawaii). This analysis shows estimated rainfall totals during the period when hurricane Ana formed on October 13, 2014 and moved west of the Hawaiian Islands on October 21, 2014. The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation data (TMPA) analysis is used to monitor rainfall
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