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News: Hurricane Amanda

Hurricane Amanda

CloudSat overpassed Hurricane Amanda in the east Pacific on May 25, 2014 at 2100 UTC about ~40 km outside of the center of the storm.

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 Amanda contained estimated maximum winds of 130 knots and minimum pressure of 935 hPA at the time of this overpass. The MODIS imagery (Figure 1), 4 KM remapped color enhanced IR imagery (Figure 3) and CloudSat overpass (Figure 2) are shown below. CloudSat overpassed through the eastern section of the storm, the storm reached peak intensity earlier in the day making Hurricane Amanda the strongest May hurricane on record for the eastern Pacific basin. The CloudSat overpass shows a deep area of moderate to heavy moderate precipitation below the freezing level (where precipitation changes from frozen to liquid). Deep anvil cloud deck extends northward with smaller cumulus clouds detectable beneath.

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. 4 KM Remapped Color Enhanced Infrared Imagery (courtesy RAMMB).


Figure 4. Hurricane Amanda Animation - East Pacific, May 25, 2014.

References:

NHC, Amanda Advisory Archive, Retrieved May 27, 2014.

MODIS imagery, LAADS Web, Retrieved May 26, 2014.

4km Remapped Color Enhanced Infrared Imagery, Hurricane Amanda, Retrieved May 27, 2014.


Last updated: May 28, 2014 by Natalie D. Tourville