This animation is of Hurricane Isabel on September 17, 2003 as it barrels toward the East Coast of the United States. At this time, Isabel was packing winds of 115 MPH and is classified as a Category 3 storm. The animation peels away the cloud layer and reveals the storms rain structure. The yellow isosurface represents areas where at least 0.5 inches ofrain fell per hour. The green isosurface show ... Full description.

As water vapor evaporates from the warm ocean surface, it is forced upward in the convective clouds that surround the eyewall and rainband regions of a storm. As the water vapor cools and condenses from a gas back to a liquid state, it releases latent heat. The release of latent heat warms the surrounding air, making it lighter and thus promoting more vigorous cloud development. Full description.

Tropical Depression 14 heads toward Cuba on October 15, 2002. The storm appears to be losing strength. The visualization zooms down to the storm and then shows the overall rain structure. Blue represents areas where at least 0.5 inches of rain fell per hour. Green shows at least 1.0 inch of rain. Yellow is 1.7 inches and red depicts more than 2.2 inches of rain per hour. Full description.

During the hurricane season of 2004, an unprecedented four hurricanes hit Florida. This animation shows the accumulated rainfall produced by three of those hurricanes during the month of September. The animation also shows the rainfall from the typhoons in the Pacific Ocean during the same period. Full description.

Captured by Aquas MODIS instrument on September 10, 2003, the (category 4) hurricane heads west towards the U.S. Isabels maximum wind cuts are at least 135 mph. The thin cirrus clouds indicate that outflow is on the western side and expanding to the West. Full description.

Typhoon Koni brings strong winds and heavy rains to China, Vietnam, and the South China Sea region on July 20, 2003. Full description.

Orbit T06 Full description.

A fly-in to Hurricane Mitch on October 27, 1998, showing the three-dimensional structure of the precipitation as measured by the Precipitation Radar instrument on TRMM. In this animation, a surface of constant precipitation is colored by the value of the precipitation on the ground under the surface. Full description.

This is one of a series of animations that were produced to be part of the narrated video shown in the HoloGlobe exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Earth Today exhibit at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Full description.

Slice through Cyclone Susan showing a surface of constant precipitation density colored by surface rainfall amounts, from TRMM infrared and Precipitation Radar data taken January 7, 1998 Full description.