30 August 2012
Hurricane Isaac By Moonlight
Posted by Dan Satterfield
From the new NPP-Suomi Satellite using the new VIRRS sensor. Click for a much bigger image.
Can you spot Richmond, Okla. City, Tulsa, and Springfield, Missouri?? That should be a good start for you. As far as know, this is the first time a hurricane has been imaged by natural light at night. Certainly the first over the U.S. A nice image of the power of Mother Nature against the backdrop of mankind’s domination of the Earth’s surface.
More on Suomi and the VIRRS here.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
Dan–It may depend on how you define “natural light at night,” but DMSP’s low light sensor has been imaging clouds at night in the visible for decades. I can’t imagine there isn’t some hurricane image in the archive somewhere.
You may be right, but I think the sensor is not nearly a slight sensitive as the new one the Suomi Sat. City lights and illumination by moonlight are two different things.
Dan