This image shows high resolution surface winds measured by the SeaWinds scatterometer on January 3 and 4, 2005, and was taken at midnight on the 4th. Wind speed is shown as color and wind direction as small black barbs. The intense red in the Gulf of Tehuantepec (just below the land in the center of the image) is the result of storm-forced wind blowing from east to west over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. The wind is funnelled through mountain passes, creating high speed wind jets over the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The wind, in turn, creates ideal conditions for upwelling, when deep, cold water is drawn to the surface. Upwelling brings nutrients to the surface which nourishes phytoplankton (microscopic plants). Zooplankton (small animals) feed on the phytoplankton and attract fish, making this a very productive fishing area. Red close along the coasts is an artifact of the imaging process.
In this image, the Pacific Ocean is at the bottom, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico is the thin neck of land area in the center of the image, and the Gulf of Mexico is at the top. Data used to create the image was collected by the SeaWinds scatteromometer onboard the QuiksCAT satellite.
Images courtesy David Long, Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder and Brigham Young University. QuikSCAT data courtesy of NASA/JPL.
QuikSCAT background
NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on June 19, 1999. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth's oceans. More information about the QuikSCAT mission and observations is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov. QuikSCAT is managed for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. JPL also built the SeaWinds radar instrument and is providing ground science processing systems. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, managed development of the satellite, designed and built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, CO. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has contributed support to ground systems processing and related activities.
In recent years, the ability to detect and track severe storms has been dramatically enhanced by the advent of weather satellites. Data from the SeaWinds scatterometer is augmenting traditional satellite images of clouds by providing direct measurements of surface winds to compare with the observed cloud patterns in an effort to better determine a hurricane's location, direction, structure, and strength. Specifically, these wind data are helping meteorologists to more accurately identify the extent of gale-force winds associated with a storm, while supplying inputs to numerical models that provide advanced warning of high waves and flooding.
