TECH NEWS | NASA satellites gather data to assist weather forecast
NASA’s fleet of satellites are gathering data to assist weather forecasters and scientists, according to a latest release of NASA.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — As Hurricane Dorian was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, NASA’s fleet of satellites were gathering data to assist weather forecasters and scientists, according to a latest release of NASA.
NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission satellite uses its IMERG algorithm with data from a fleet of satellites to provide global estimates of the precipitation within the storm every 30 minutes.
NOAA-NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite uses its complement of instruments onboard to dissect storms and provide information on different aspects of the hurricane including storm strength, cloudtop temperature, circulation, and rainfall, among others, said the release.
The core of Dorian should move over the Atlantic well north of the southeastern and central Bahamas on Friday and Saturday. It will be near or over the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday, and be near the Florida peninsula late Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast.
The Hurricane Hunter plane finds Dorian is now a major hurricane, said the NHC.
Currently the storm’s maximum sustained winds are 185 kilometers per hour (km/h) with higher gusts, and are moving northwest at 17 km/h, said NASA.
