+ Visit NASA.gov + Advanced Search   + About the Server   + Animation List   + How to Use the Server   + RSS Feeds Previous Animation Next Animation Hurricane Rita's Hot Towers NASA's TRMM spacecraft allows us to look under Hurricane Rita's clouds to see the rain structure on September 19, 2005 at 15Z. Spikes in the rain structure known as 'hot towers' indicate storm intensity. 'Hot Towers' refers to tall cumulonimbus clouds and has been seen as one of the mechanisms by which the intensity of a tropical cyclone is maintained. Because of the size (1-20 km) and short duration (30 minute to 2 hours) of these hot towers, studies of these events have been limited to descriptive studies from aircraft observations, although a few have attempted to use the presence of hot towers in a predictive capacity. Before TRMM, no data set existed that could show globally and definitively the presence of these hot towers in cyclone systems. Aircraft radar studies of individual storms lack global coverage. Global microwave or Infrared sensor observations do not provide the needed spatial resolution. With a ground resolution of 5 km, the TRMM Precipitation Radar provided the needed data set for examining the predictive value of hot towers in cyclone intensification. At the time the data was taken, this storm was classified as a Tropical Storm with winds off 55 knots and a pressure of 994mb. The existence of these 18 km towers in the eye wall alerted researchers that this storm was going to rapidly intensify. Within 48 hours of this data set, the storm was a very strong category 4 hurricane.    The TRMM spacecraft's Precipation Radar (PR) instrument observed 18 km towers in the eye wall of Hurricane Rita. Duration: 8.0 seconds Available formats:   720x480 (29.97 fps) MPEG-2   7 MB   720x480 (30 fps) MPEG-1   5 MB   2560x1920 TIFF         4 MB   720x486 (30 fps) Frames   320x240     JPEG         44 KB   160x80       PNG           20 KB   80x40         PNG           5 KB   1280x720 (30 fps) Frames How to play our movies    Hurricane Rita's towers with the storm's clouds removed. Available formats:   2560 x 1920     TIFF 2 MB   320 x 240         PNG 63 KB    Hurricane Rita's vertical rain structure in kilometers. The high towers are shown in red. Available formats:   320 x 90           PNG   8 KB Animation Number: 3259 Animators: Lori Perkins (SVS) (Lead)   Greg Shirah (SVS) Completed: 2005-09-20 Scientist: Jeff Halverson (JCET UMBC) Instruments: TRMM/PR   TRMM/TMI   TRMM/VIRS Data Collected: 2005/09/19 Series: Hurricanes   TRMM 3D Hurricanes   Hurricane Rita Keywords: DLESE >> Atmospheric science SVS >> HDTV SVS >> Hurricane DLESE >> Natural hazards SVS >> Hurricane Frances Science paper: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0112towerclouds.html     Please give credit for this item to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Back to Top + Privacy Policy and Important Notices + Reproduction Guidelines NASA Official: SVS Contact: Curator: