NASA's CloudSat Gathers an Impressive Inside Look at Massive Cyclone Yasi
Posted by JAC on 2/9/2011, 9:02 am
| NASA's CloudSat satellite flew over Tropical Cyclone Yasi and revealed some impressive numbers for the height and width of the storm's clouds. Yasi was a category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph made landfall on the eastern Australian coast on February 3rd, 2011. CloudSat overpassed the storm at 1520 UTC on February 1, 2011, about 32 hours before the storm hit the coast.  CloudSat overpassed the eastern section of the storm providing a detailed glimpse of the cirrus (white line), cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds encompassing the system. Infrared imagery was acquired from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the NASA's Aqua satellite. CloudSat imagery is shown below the image along the blue track line. The center coordinate of the pass was -14.1 degree latitude, 153.8 degree longitude. The colors in the CloudSat image indicate the intensity of the reflected radar energy, red colors indicating the most intense reflected energy. This is an indication of large amounts of water and heavy rainfall. Heavier precipitation bands are denoted by absence of radar signal around the inner core region. Gaps in the rainbands outside of the inner core region (called moats) are easily distinguishable by the CloudSat data. The cloud layering structure in the inner core region reveals the upper portion of a much stronger cell (black line) expanding upwards and outwards over smaller cumulus cells. Cloudsat measured the storm from one end to the other and found it to be about 1450 kilometers (901 miles) across from end to end. CloudSat measurements also showed that the highest thunderstorms measured an incredible 19,200 kilometers (11.9 miles) high! Thunderstorms that high are tremendous rainmakers and very powerful. Tropical Cyclone Yasi is the most intense cyclone to hit Australia since 1918, above normal sea surface temperatures in the southwest Pacific can be attributed to La Nina conditions. Text Credit: NASA JPL |
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In this thread:
Cyclone Yasi Sat,news clips,and aftermath video - Fred, 2/9/2011, 8:47 am
- NASA's TRMM Satellite Totaled Cyclone Yasi's Heavy Rainfall in Queensland - JAC, 2/9/2011, 9:05 am
- Re: NASA's CloudSat Gathers an Impressive Inside Look at Massive Cyclone Yasi - chucky7777, 2/10/2011, 5:14 am
- Great Barrier Reef Clouded by Sediments Stirred by Storm - JAC, 2/9/2011, 8:59 am
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