 | Hurricane Andrew in the Gulf of Mexico |
Storms Viewed from Space
Satellites in orbit
around the Earth took these pictures.
Instruments
aboard satellites take pictures of storms and other atmospheric features,
and send them back to Earth from space. Here are pictures of hurricanes, also called
typhoons or tropical cyclones.
If you want to learn more background information about satellite orbits click HERE.
Click on the small pictures (except the one for Hurricane Tomas) to view larger versions:
 | Hurricane Tomas, March 1994 |
 | Hurricane Emily |
 | Hurricane Andrew, Gulf of Mexico August 1992 |
 | Hurricane Luis, off East coast Sept 1995 |
 | Hurricane Eduoard, mid-Atlantic Aug 1996 |
 | Hurricane Fran, off Florida Sept 1996 |
 | Hurricane Lilli, off Yucatan Oct 1996 |
Many of these pictures were taken from the NOAA GOES-8 satellite, operated by NOAA.
Various digital techniques were used to produce the different images.
Quoting NASA, "Hurricane Fran was recorded by GOES-8 on September 4, 1996,
7 hours before the eye went ashore
at Cape Fear, North Carolina. An approximation of photo-realistic colors was
made using the following channels
from the spacecraft: the RED is
derived from from the visible, the GREEN is derived from an enhanced
version of the visible, and the BLUE is derived from the inverted
11 micrometer infrared channel."
Examine the pictures and answer these questions.
- How are the storms in the pictures the same?
- How are they different?
- One of these pictures is from a storm in the Southern Hemisphere.
Can you tell which one? How is it different from the others?
- Click on each picture to get a larger version. Now you can see more
detail. The dotted lines on some images represent the outlines of continents or
land masses. Can you identify the land mass and locate the storm on a map or
globe?
- Judging from the outlines of land, estimate the size of the hurricanes.
- Identify the eye of the hurricane. How big do you think it is?
Enter the answers to these questions and note any other observations you have
in your log book.
Now go find more pictures of hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones.
Additional Reading
Instructional
Mandell, Muriel. Simple Weather Experiments with Everyday Materials.
Sterling, 1990.
Branley, Franklyn M. It's Raining Cats and Dogs. Houghton MIfflin,
1987.
Forrester, Frank. 1001 Questions Answered About the Weather. New
York: Dover Publications, 1981
Novels related to storms
Dorris, Michael. Morning Girl.
Sperry, Armstrong. Call It Courage.
Taylor, Theodore. The Cay.
References and Image Credits
Hurricane Fran shows
many views of this hurricane, which was featured in
Time magazine
(Sept. 16, 1996, p.70) and in
Life magazine (Year in Pictures 1996). Our image of Fran
was done at the NASA-GSFC laboratory for Atmospheres,
with help from Code 935. Fritz Hasler and others produced it.
Hurricanes: General information, many views and movies of Andrew,
and student activities.
Supplemental Information about Hurricanes as seen by
Mariners
Written by: Douglas W. Potter,
Hugh R. Anderson, and
Kathee Terry
Last Modified by NASA:
Fri Feb 28, 1997
