6 ms·

Watching Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia From Above Earth

140 points by jashkenas 9y ago

koolba 9y ago
These images are amazing. In particular the zoom in view on the Caribbean showing the direct hit to St Martin. > In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. I don't know who the pilot is for this but he's got bigger balls than me.
- edge17 9y ago
  https://youtu.be/u7UWWjkpd7o https://youtu.be/u7UWWjkpd7o - Flying through Irma's eye wall https://youtu.be/a-SnxC-BkPo https://youtu.be/a-SnxC-BkPo - Short documentary segment on the NOAA team
- jngreenlee 9y ago
  Any idea what the guy in the middle's job is? Looks like he watches an instrument and pulls a lever based on what he observes. Seems like something that could be automated!
  - rory096 9y ago
    First guess was dropping a dropsonde[0], but watching the video and cross-checking a P-3 cockpit[1], looks like he's controlling the throttle. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsonde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsonde [1] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/79/e9/f579e91f79ac79d91dc0bb85af37eebf.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/79/e9/f579e91f79ac79d91dc0...
- dsr_ 9y ago
  http://www.hurricanehunters.com/ http://www.hurricanehunters.com/ -- The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, from the Air Force Reserve.
- eCa 9y ago
  You might enjoy this as well: https://www.wunderground.com/resources/education/hugo1.asp https://www.wunderground.com/resources/education/hugo1.asp
carlmcqueen 9y ago
New York Times' ability to display data, information and stories visually on the internet is truly a wonderful standard to see. I really enjoyed the layout of this page, where the world sits, how the colors in the background don't take away from the effect from the day/night transitions. It is just wonderful.
- noir_lord 9y ago
  NYT is just generally excellent when it comes to online news media, the one other paper I can think of that comes close is The Guardian but NYT's visualisations are a class of their own.
jashkenas 9y ago
It's nice to see that folks are enjoying this — it was a group effort to wrestle the 22.3 gigs of imagery frames over FTP and get them cropped, processed, overlaid and sorted in time. For anyone who wants to dig deeper, the RAMMB branch of NOAA in Colorado maintains a page of GOES16 loops of the day: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/loop_of_the_day/ http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/loop_of_the_d... ... and also runs a fancy imagery viewer where you can play around with different micrometer wavelength bands: http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-16&sec=full_disk http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-16&sec=full...
- phkahler 9y ago
  It would be really awesome to have this as wallpaper on a 4K monitor and have it update every 15 minutes. Is there a fixed URL to the most recent image?
  - ianai 9y ago
    I think that's the second link?
  - jashkenas 9y ago
    There isn't one that I'm aware of ... yet. That said, the raw data is available through an S3-compatible service, here: https://osdc.rcc.uchicago.edu/noaa-goes16 https://osdc.rcc.uchicago.edu/noaa-goes16 With documentation about how to navigate and use the files here: http://edc.occ-data.org/goes16/getdata/ http://edc.occ-data.org/goes16/getdata/ So it would be possible to script together something that cooks out a nice high-rez full disc image every 15 minutes. For fun, here's one of the full disc frames we cropped in from: https://d1ax1i5f2y3x71.cloudfront.net/items/0J2g1S1y2f2D1y0W0w2w/20172491730_g16_geocolor_fd_25.jpg https://d1ax1i5f2y3x71.cloudfront.net/items/0J2g1S1y2f2D1y0W... Note that even though its 2712x2712 pixels, that's still way smaller than GOES16's potential resolution. The highest rez versions of this image that I've encountered go over 10,000 by 10,000...
    - amelius 9y ago
volkk 9y ago
> In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. What kind of planes can safely fly through a storm like this? Or is the eye a lot safer to go through?
- sp332 9y ago
  NOAA Hurricane hunters fly WP-3 Orions. https://www.omao.noaa.gov/learn/aircraft-operations/aircraft/lockheed-wp-3d-orion https://www.omao.noaa.gov/learn/aircraft-operations/aircraft... USAF 53rd Weather Reconniassance Squadron fly WC-130s. http://www.militaryaircrafthistorian.com/53rd_wrs.html http://www.militaryaircrafthistorian.com/53rd_wrs.html Inside the eye can be calm, but the highest winds, wind shear, tornadoes, rainfall, and hail, are in the eye wall.
  - volkk 9y ago
    I tried to read a bit about it, but couldn't really find much in terms of--what makes these planes a lot more durable than your standard 737/747?
    - okreallywtf 9y ago
      I wondered specifically why both planes were prop driven (seems like a jet engine would have more thrust and you wouldn't have to worry about wind forces on the props) and I found this, hopefully it helps with your question as well. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/cox/2016/05/29/turboprop-propeller-plane/85045552/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/cox/2016/05/...
      - volkk 9y ago
        This is awesome. Thanks!
TeMPOraL 9y ago
Wow, just wow. I didn't realize there finally are more cameras that can provide this image quality in space, beyond the one that is (was?) on the ISS. Also kudos to NYT for the way they put it together. I'm mesmerized by the globe video.
- sp332 9y ago
  GOES-16 was just launched in November last year. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/witness-the-firepower-of-this-fully-armed-and-operational-weather-satellite/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/witness-the-firepowe... There are 3 more of them scheduled for the next 20 years.
  - gogoengie 9y ago
    Amazing comparison of Hurricane Irma from the new GOES-16 vs the old GOES-13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCJlBDAK80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCJlBDAK80 The performance jump in capture time and resolution blew me away. Really exciting to see it coming on-line.
- kobeya 9y ago
  The "one on the ISS" is usually an astronaut looking out the window ;)
- amaterasu 9y ago
  Are there any equivalent satellites over Australia?
  - himawari8 9y ago
    Himawari-8 covers Australia. You can view today's imagery at https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/ https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/
amelius 9y ago
I was armchair-wondering what would have happened if North Korea would have tested their H-bomb in the eye of a hurricane instead, but I found this old broken HN post: [1]. It turns out not to be a good idea. Who would have thought? :) On the other hand, I'm still curious if a "directed" explosion (i.e., not radial but say with only an x-component) could accomplish something. PS: It is a pity that the early formation of the hurricanes is not visible in the video. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=698754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=698754
singularity2001 9y ago
Is there a tendency for Hurricane eyes to 'open' at night and close again in the morning, or was it coincidence?
- 3JPLW 9y ago
  My hunch is that it's just an artifact from the shift in imaging technologies from visible wavelengths to infrared (or somesuch).
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
Poseidon_Nep 9y ago
This is incredible. You can actually see the moment Irma's eye wall starts to disintegrate.
ereyes01 9y ago
If you scroll down and look at South America, it's pretty remarkable how the clouds clearly carve out the Andes mountain range. All the swirling moisture from the southern Pacific smashes into the wall of the mountains and breaks apart, save for squirts that get through some of the valleys to the other side. I lost 10 minutes staring at all the details... really cool viz.

140 points by jashkenas 9y ago

These images are amazing. In particular the zoom in view on the Caribbean showing the direct hit to St Martin. > In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. I don't know who the pilot is for this but he's got bigger balls than me.

edge17 9y ago
https://youtu.be/u7UWWjkpd7o https://youtu.be/u7UWWjkpd7o - Flying through Irma's eye wall https://youtu.be/a-SnxC-BkPo https://youtu.be/a-SnxC-BkPo - Short documentary segment on the NOAA team
jngreenlee 9y ago
Any idea what the guy in the middle's job is? Looks like he watches an instrument and pulls a lever based on what he observes. Seems like something that could be automated!
- rory096 9y ago
  First guess was dropping a dropsonde[0], but watching the video and cross-checking a P-3 cockpit[1], looks like he's controlling the throttle. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsonde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsonde [1] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/79/e9/f579e91f79ac79d91dc0bb85af37eebf.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/79/e9/f579e91f79ac79d91dc0...
dsr_ 9y ago
http://www.hurricanehunters.com/ http://www.hurricanehunters.com/ -- The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, from the Air Force Reserve.
eCa 9y ago
You might enjoy this as well: https://www.wunderground.com/resources/education/hugo1.asp https://www.wunderground.com/resources/education/hugo1.asp

carlmcqueen 9y ago

New York Times' ability to display data, information and stories visually on the internet is truly a wonderful standard to see. I really enjoyed the layout of this page, where the world sits, how the colors in the background don't take away from the effect from the day/night transitions. It is just wonderful.

noir_lord 9y ago
NYT is just generally excellent when it comes to online news media, the one other paper I can think of that comes close is The Guardian but NYT's visualisations are a class of their own.

jashkenas 9y ago

It's nice to see that folks are enjoying this — it was a group effort to wrestle the 22.3 gigs of imagery frames over FTP and get them cropped, processed, overlaid and sorted in time. For anyone who wants to dig deeper, the RAMMB branch of NOAA in Colorado maintains a page of GOES16 loops of the day: http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/loop_of_the_day/ http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/loop_of_the_d... ... and also runs a fancy imagery viewer where you can play around with different micrometer wavelength bands: http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-16&sec=full_disk http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-16&sec=full...

phkahler 9y ago
It would be really awesome to have this as wallpaper on a 4K monitor and have it update every 15 minutes. Is there a fixed URL to the most recent image?
- ianai 9y ago
  I think that's the second link?
- jashkenas 9y ago
  There isn't one that I'm aware of ... yet. That said, the raw data is available through an S3-compatible service, here: https://osdc.rcc.uchicago.edu/noaa-goes16 https://osdc.rcc.uchicago.edu/noaa-goes16 With documentation about how to navigate and use the files here: http://edc.occ-data.org/goes16/getdata/ http://edc.occ-data.org/goes16/getdata/ So it would be possible to script together something that cooks out a nice high-rez full disc image every 15 minutes. For fun, here's one of the full disc frames we cropped in from: https://d1ax1i5f2y3x71.cloudfront.net/items/0J2g1S1y2f2D1y0W0w2w/20172491730_g16_geocolor_fd_25.jpg https://d1ax1i5f2y3x71.cloudfront.net/items/0J2g1S1y2f2D1y0W... Note that even though its 2712x2712 pixels, that's still way smaller than GOES16's potential resolution. The highest rez versions of this image that I've encountered go over 10,000 by 10,000...
  - amelius 9y ago

volkk 9y ago

> In a NOAA reconnaissance mission, a plane flew through the eye wall to gather data on the storm, recording winds of 139 miles per hour at sea level. What kind of planes can safely fly through a storm like this? Or is the eye a lot safer to go through?

sp332 9y ago
NOAA Hurricane hunters fly WP-3 Orions. https://www.omao.noaa.gov/learn/aircraft-operations/aircraft/lockheed-wp-3d-orion https://www.omao.noaa.gov/learn/aircraft-operations/aircraft... USAF 53rd Weather Reconniassance Squadron fly WC-130s. http://www.militaryaircrafthistorian.com/53rd_wrs.html http://www.militaryaircrafthistorian.com/53rd_wrs.html Inside the eye can be calm, but the highest winds, wind shear, tornadoes, rainfall, and hail, are in the eye wall.
- volkk 9y ago
  I tried to read a bit about it, but couldn't really find much in terms of--what makes these planes a lot more durable than your standard 737/747?
  - okreallywtf 9y ago
    I wondered specifically why both planes were prop driven (seems like a jet engine would have more thrust and you wouldn't have to worry about wind forces on the props) and I found this, hopefully it helps with your question as well. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/cox/2016/05/29/turboprop-propeller-plane/85045552/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/cox/2016/05/...
    - volkk 9y ago
      This is awesome. Thanks!

TeMPOraL 9y ago

Wow, just wow. I didn't realize there finally are more cameras that can provide this image quality in space, beyond the one that is (was?) on the ISS. Also kudos to NYT for the way they put it together. I'm mesmerized by the globe video.

sp332 9y ago
GOES-16 was just launched in November last year. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/witness-the-firepower-of-this-fully-armed-and-operational-weather-satellite/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/witness-the-firepowe... There are 3 more of them scheduled for the next 20 years.
- gogoengie 9y ago
  Amazing comparison of Hurricane Irma from the new GOES-16 vs the old GOES-13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCJlBDAK80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCJlBDAK80 The performance jump in capture time and resolution blew me away. Really exciting to see it coming on-line.
kobeya 9y ago
The "one on the ISS" is usually an astronaut looking out the window ;)
amaterasu 9y ago
Are there any equivalent satellites over Australia?
- himawari8 9y ago
  Himawari-8 covers Australia. You can view today's imagery at https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/ https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/

amelius 9y ago

I was armchair-wondering what would have happened if North Korea would have tested their H-bomb in the eye of a hurricane instead, but I found this old broken HN post: [1]. It turns out not to be a good idea. Who would have thought? :) On the other hand, I'm still curious if a "directed" explosion (i.e., not radial but say with only an x-component) could accomplish something. PS: It is a pity that the early formation of the hurricanes is not visible in the video. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=698754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=698754

singularity2001 9y ago

Is there a tendency for Hurricane eyes to 'open' at night and close again in the morning, or was it coincidence?

3JPLW 9y ago
My hunch is that it's just an artifact from the shift in imaging technologies from visible wavelengths to infrared (or somesuch).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

Poseidon_Nep 9y ago

This is incredible. You can actually see the moment Irma's eye wall starts to disintegrate.

ereyes01 9y ago

If you scroll down and look at South America, it's pretty remarkable how the clouds clearly carve out the Andes mountain range. All the swirling moisture from the southern Pacific smashes into the wall of the mountains and breaks apart, save for squirts that get through some of the valleys to the other side. I lost 10 minutes staring at all the details... really cool viz.