NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite flew over Hurricane Matthew several times as the category 4 storm headed toward Florida.
The GPM Core Observatory carries two instruments that show the location and intensity of rain and snow, which defines a crucial part of the storm structure – and how it will behave. The GPM Microwave Imager sees through the tops of clouds to observe how much and where precipitation occurs, and the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar observes precise details of precipitation in 3-dimensions.
This data visualization resumes where the visualization "GPM Captures Hurricane Matthew Over Haiti" leaves off. After dissolving away GPM's DPR and GPROF data over Haiti on October 3rd, 2016, we follow Matthew to October 4th as the eye makes landfall over Haiti. GPM's GPROF sweeps in to show the tremendous amounts of rainfall throughout Haiti. We then move forward in time to October 6th as Matthew approaches Florida. Another GPM GPROF swath shows how close the outer bands of precipitation are to the Florida coast. Finally, we move a little further into the same day revealing the massive amounts of rainfall being produced by this storm as it begins to impact Florida.
GPM data is part of the toolbox of satellite data used by forecasters and scientists to understand how storms behave. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Current and future data sets are available with free registration to users from NASA Goddard's Precipitation Processing Center website.
Instrument / Model: GMI, DPR
