| Dave Steitz Headquarters, Washington, D.C. (Phone: 202/358-1730) Allen Kenitzer |
Sept. 1, 1998 |
PHOTO RELEASE NO: P98-152
NASA SCIENTISTS OBSERVE UNUSUALLY TALL CLOUD IN HURRICANE BONNIE - This compelling image is from Hurricane Bonnie showing a (cumulonimbus) storm cloud, towering like a sky scraper, 59,000 feet (18 kilometers) into the sky from the eyewall. This image was obtained on Saturday, Aug. 22, 1998, by the world’s first spaceborne rain radar aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), a joint U.S.-Japanese mission. Launched last fall, the TRMM spacecraft continues to provide exciting new insight into cloud systems over tropical oceans.
By comparison, the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest, is 29,000 feet (9 kilometers) and the average commercial jet flies at barely one-half the height of the Bonnie’s cloud tops.
Scientists believe that towering cloud structures like this are probably precursors to hurricane intensification. This was the situation with Bonnie whose central pressure dropped from 977 millibars to 957 millibars in the subsequent 24 hours.
TRMM is a joint NASA and NASDA mission that was launched November 27, 1997 from the Japanese Space Center, Tanegashima, Japan.
The TRMM mission is part of NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment.
PHOTO CREDIT: NASA, or National Aeronautics and Space Administration
No copyright protection is asserted for this photograph. If a recognizable person appears in this photograph, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity. It may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA or by any NASA employees of a commercial product, process or service, or used in any other manner that might mislead. Accordingly it is requested that if this photo is used in advertising, and other commercial promotion, layout and copy be submitted to NASA prior to release.