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Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

nytimes.com

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Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#2
These images are amazing. In particular the zoom in view on the Caribbean showing the direct hit to St Martin.

> In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level.

I don't know who the pilot is for this but he's got bigger balls than me.

Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#3
post #2

These images are amazing. In particular the zoom in view on the Caribbean showing the direct hit to St Martin. > In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. I don't know who the pilot is for this but he's got bigger balls than me.

https://youtu.be/u7UWWjkpd7o - Flying through Irma's eye wall

https://youtu.be/a-SnxC-BkPo - Short documentary segment on the NOAA team

Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#4
New York Times' ability to display data, information and stories visually on the internet is truly a wonderful standard to see.

I really enjoyed the layout of this page, where the world sits, how the colors in the background don't take away from the effect from the day/night transitions. It is just wonderful.

Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#5
post #2

These images are amazing. In particular the zoom in view on the Caribbean showing the direct hit to St Martin. > In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. I don't know who the pilot is for this but he's got bigger balls than me.

Any idea what the guy in the middle's job is? Looks like he watches an instrument and pulls a lever based on what he observes. Seems like something that could be automated!

Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#6
It's nice to see that folks are enjoying this — it was a group effort to wrestle the 22.3 gigs of imagery frames over FTP and get them cropped, processed, overlaid and sorted in time.

For anyone who wants to dig deeper, the RAMMB branch of NOAA in Colorado maintains a page of GOES16 loops of the day: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/loop_of_the_d...

... and also runs a fancy imagery viewer where you can play around with different micrometer wavelength bands: http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-16&sec=full...

Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#9
post #2

These images are amazing. In particular the zoom in view on the Caribbean showing the direct hit to St Martin. > In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. I don't know who the pilot is for this but he's got bigger balls than me.

Any idea what the guy in the middle's job is? Looks like he watches an instrument and pulls a lever based on what he observes. Seems like something that could be automated!

First guess was dropping a dropsonde[0], but watching the video and cross-checking a P-3 cockpit[1], looks like he's controlling the throttle.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsonde

[1] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/79/e9/f579e91f79ac79d91dc0...

Re: Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

#10
post #8

Wow, just wow. I didn't realize there finally are more cameras that can provide this image quality in space, beyond the one that is (was?) on the ISS. Also kudos to NYT for the way they put it together. I'm mesmerized by the globe video.

GOES-16 was just launched in November last year. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/witness-the-firepowe... There are 3 more of them scheduled for the next 20 years.
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