Earth ID: 4437

Inside Cyclone Winston (February 20, 2016)

Visualizations by on March 11, 2016

Turntable visualization of Cyclone Winston with a cutting plane through the storm's eye. As the camera swings around the cyclone, the cutting plane stays perpendicular to the camera revealing a cross-section of the cyclone's internal precipitation rates. Extremely heavy precipitation remains outside of the clipping plane, showing a wall of heavy rain around the eye.

The NASA GPM satellite passed directly over Tropical Cyclone Winston just after it made landfall on the north coast of Viti Levu Island, which is the largest and most populated island in the nation of Fiji. At the time, Winston was one of the most intense tropical cyclones observed in the South Pacific Ocean, and took an unusual track on the way to Fiji, completing a large counter-clockwise loop during the preceding week.

NASA's GPM satellite is designed to measure rainfall using both passive microwave (GMI) and radar (DPR) instruments. GMI measurements are sensitive to the column-integrated rain and ice water, and cover a wide swath, whereas the DPR can observe 3D structures of radar signals reflected by rain and snow in a narrower swath. In this animation, the GMI rainfall estimates are shown at the Earth's surface below the 3D storm structure revealed by DPR.

Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation.

Print resolution still showing a nadir view of Cyclone Winston's surface precipitation rates over the Fiji Islands via GPM's GPROF algorithm.

Print resolution still of a bisected Cyclone Winston with Fiji's main island in the foreground. Even with the eye of the storm Northwest of the main island, one can still see a very heavy precipitation event occuring over the central part of the main island. Volumetric precipitation data is provided by GPM's DPR sensor. Surface precipitation is provided by GPM's GPROF algorithm.

Alternate Version

Cyclone Winston Slams Fiji (February 20, 2016)

Visualization Credits

Alex Kekesi (GST): Lead Visualizer
Gail Skofronick Jackson (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
George Huffman (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
Stephen J. Munchak (University of Maryland): Lead Scientist
Chris Kidd (University of Maryland): Lead Scientist
Dalia B Kirschbaum (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Rani Chohan (NASA/GSFC): Lead Producer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Data provided by the joint NASA/JAXA GPM mission.

Short URL to share this page:
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4437

Mission:
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)

Data Used:
GPM/DPR/Ku 2/20/2016 9:41:28 - 10:11:27 Z
GPM/GMI/Surface Precipitation 2/20/2016 9:25:32 - 10:58:03 Z
CPC (Climate Prediction Center) Cloud Composite 2/20/2016 9:41:30 Z

This item is part of these series:
Cyclones
GPM Animations

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
DLESE >> Natural hazards
SVS >> Tropical Storm
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Cyclones
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Precipitation >> Rain
GCMD >> Location >> Fiji
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0