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New
NASA Satellite Zooms in on Tornado Swath (caption below)
A
number of severe thunder storms swept through the mid-Atlantic
states on April 28, bringing high winds, hailstones, and heavy
rains to many areas. The intense storms spawned at least two
tornadoes, one of which was classified as an F5 tornado--the
most severe category, with winds in excess of 260 miles per
hour (425 km per hour). The powerful tornado touched down
in southern Maryland and ripped through the town of La Plata,
destroying most of the historic downtown. The twister--the
strongest ever recorded to hit the state and perhaps the strongest
ever recorded in the eastern U.S.--flattened everything in
its path along a 24-mile (39 km) swath running west to east
through the state.
The
tornado's path can be seen clearly in this panchromatic image
acquired on May 1 by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI), flying
aboard NASA's EO-1 satellite. La Plata is situated toward
the left hand side of this scene and the twister's swath is
the bright stripe passing through the town and running eastward
6 miles (10 km) toward the Patuxent River beyond the righthand
side of the image. This stripe is the result of the vegetation
flattened by the storm. The flattened vegetation reflects
more light than untouched vegetation.
EO-1
is the first Earth observing satellite launched as part of
NASA's New Millennium Program. This program is designed to
spearhead development and testing of a new generation of satellite
remote sensing technologies for future Earth and space science
missions. The ALI is designed to improve upon and extend the
measurement heritage begun by the Landsat series of satellites
well into the 21st Century.
Image
courtesy Lawrence Ong, EO-1 Science Team, NASA GSFC
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