17 May 2011

New NASA Image Shows Tuscaloosa Tornado Path

Posted by Dan Satterfield

NASA’s Terra satellite has an instrument called ASTER, which stands for Advanced  Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. In non-geek that means it can sense infrared and visible light (this allows areas of vegetation to  show up very well). Using multiple wavelengths, and even adding and subtracting one from another has allowed some incredible remote sensing images.

The shot below has to be the top of the heap up to now. The blue areas show the absence of vegetation, and the path of the EF 4 Tuscaloosa tornado is clearly visible. The image is courtesy of NASA meteorologist Gary Jedlovec, at NASA-MSFC here in Huntsville.

 

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The full image is below

 

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