CloudSat overpassed Hurricane Henriette in the east Pacific on August 8, 2013 at 2255 UTC. CloudSat overpassed around 4km outside the storm center intersecting right through the tiny storm system.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured the infrared (IR) (Figure 1) image taken a few minutes before the CloudSat overpass (Figure 2) denote by the blue line A->B).
Hurricane Henriette had an estimated maximum intensity of 90 knots at the time of this overpass. The MODIS imagery, 1km remapped color enhanced IR imagery and CloudSat overpass are shown below. CloudSat overpassed about 4km from the center of the storm in the east Pacific. The CloudSat overpass reveals the compact cloud structure with areas of light to moderate precipitation. Cirrus (light blue and green) clouds are located above the cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds (pink and red in color).
The CloudSat overpass excels in revealing the unique small size of the inner core of Hurricane Henriette. Cloud top heights around the eye wall are around 15-16 km. The eye is enclosed with upper level clouds and is only a few km's in size.
An animation containing GOES satellite imagery with CloudSat imagery overlaid is shown in Figure 4 (courtesy Shigeru Suzuki of JPL).
Figure 1. MODIS IR imagery (courtesy NOAA LAADS Web).
Figure 2. CloudSat overpass track (courtesy CloudSat Data Processing Center).
Figure 3. 1km Remapped Color Enhanced Infrared Imagery (courtesy RAMMB).
Figure 4. Hurricane Henriette Animation - East Pacific, August 8, 2013.
