3D View of Hurricane Irma Lightning

3D Hurricane Irma Lightning

© Patrick Meyers

Hurricane Irma gave CICS-MD Scientist Patrick Meyers and other researchers the opportunity to evaluate the newest members of the US weather satellite fleet. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) provides infrared and visible imagery of the storm every 30 seconds. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) measures the total amount of electrical activity based on lightning illuminating the surrounding clouds. Due to the lack of surface radar over the ocean, meteorologists are required to use measurements of precipitation from low-earth orbit satellites. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite measured the instantaneous rain rates on the afternoon of September 5th.

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