thar she blows!

August 30, 2005 4:43 PM

Time-lapse videos of hurricanes from space from Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center's Camex-4 Hurricane study. [note: Quicktime]
posted by crunchland (10 comments total)

These are the coolest videos ever. I was actually planning on asking an AskMe question to see if people had any long term/time-lapse radar/satellite video footage. Anyone got any more?
posted by Mach5 at 4:50 PM on August 30, 2005

I was watching The Weather Channel last night and their storm specialist had a nearly 2 week time lapse of Katrina as it developed from a tropical wave then exploded into the Cat 5. It was a remarkable piece of video and I've been looking all over since...
posted by Jazznoisehere at 5:50 PM on August 30, 2005

I have an idea. This weekend, when you go to your parties (as most of us do) bring a bottle of liquor and some extra beer with you. That’s your donation to this cause. At the party, sell them off to your friends at bar prices. $3-5 per drink. You can raise $18 off a $5 6-pack. A $12 liter of whiskey could net back $68. Second Harvest can bring 15 meals for $1.
posted by trinarian at 6:41 PM on August 30, 2005

The Hurricane Frances video is mesmerizing: watch the eye contract and expand as the storm pinwheels towards Florida.

I wonder if mankind will be around long enough to capture a hurricane effect in space?
posted by cenoxo at 6:43 PM on August 30, 2005

I wish the Frances video would show the Florida impact. I went through her giant eye last year
posted by trinarian at 7:13 PM on August 30, 2005

Excellent. Cheers, crunchland.
posted by carter at 10:16 PM on August 30, 2005

I kept expecting the eye to go off focus but its so far up it couldn't, these were really compelling to watch. Its so cool and I feel kind of bad for liking it so much when it probably sucked mightily to try and live through any of those storms.
posted by fenriq at 10:24 PM on August 30, 2005

Be sure not to miss the best one of the lot, which is a 24mb qt of hurricane Isabel. It's listed after several less riveting examples, and you might be tempted to move on before getting to it.
posted by crunchland at 6:34 AM on August 31, 2005

Very cool post.
posted by OmieWise at 7:44 AM on August 31, 2005

This is another wonderful NASA video (found via New Scientist, quote from article below)

My comment:

Watch the hurricane tracks along the Gulf Stream, as well as the latest one going into New Orleans

You can see some apparent steering toward warmer water temperature -- it looks as though the warm water draws the hurricane forward, which I guess makes sense -- the Gulf of Mexico basin full of heat just draws it northward toward the warmer water; coming from the colder Atlantic and hitting the Gulf Stream, it looks as though the north side of the hurricane (transition from cold to warm water) is being strengthened and pulling the hurricane along the Gulf Stream.

From New Scientist:

QUOTE

"... in the Atlantic basin is an average of 2-4°C warmer than in previous years.

Warmer waters make it easier for hurricanes to form and could be one of the reasons there have been more hurricanes than usual this season.

View a NASA movie (mpg format) of sea surface temperatures and clouds from June 9 to August 29, showing the different tracks of Hurricanes Dennis, Emily, and at the end Katrina.
END QUOTE
posted by hank at 11:42 AM on August 31, 2005