When NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the U.S. Eastern seaboard, it captured an infrared image of Hurricane Chris that showed an eye staring back at the satellite. Chris is expected to continue generating heavy ocean swells along the U.S. East Coast and bring heavy rainfall to Newfoundland, Canada.
When NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the U.S. Eastern seaboard, it captured an infrared image of Hurricane Chris that showed an eye staring back at the satellite. Chris is expected to continue generating heavy ocean swells along the U.S. East Coast and bring heavy rainfall to Newfoundland, Canada.
Chris strengthened into a hurricane on July 10 at 5 p.m. EDT when it was about 205 miles (330 km) east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Chris on July 11 at 2:17 a.m. EDT (0617 UTC) and analyzed the storm in infrared light. Infrared light provides scientists with temperature data and that's important when trying to understand how strong storms can be. The higher the cloud tops, the colder and the stronger they are. So infrared light as that gathered by the AIRS instrument can identify the strongest sides of a tropical cyclone.
AIRS detected strongest storms in a thick band around the eye, and in large, fragmented bands of thunderstorms north and east of the center. All of those area revealed cloud top temperatures as cold as minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius). Storms with cloud top temperatures that cold have the capability to produce heavy rainfall.
Read more at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Image: AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Chris on July 11 at 2:17 a.m. EDT (0617 UTC) and analyzed the storm in infrared light. AIRS found strongest storms in a thick band around the eye, and in large, fragmented bands of thunderstorms north and east of the center with cloud top temperatures as cold as -63F/-53C. (Credit: NASA JPL/Heidar Thrastarson)
