NASA's QuikScat satellite acquired this image of Category One Typhoon
Fitow on Sept. 6, 2007, prior to the storm making landfall in Japan. The
center of Fitow is indicated by the purple color. This image depicts wind
speed in color and wind direction with small barbs. White barbs point to
areas of heavy rain. The highest wind speeds, around the eye, are shown in
purple.
QuikScat, managed by JPL, measures ocean surface wind/stress by sending
radar pulses to the surface and measuring the strength of the signals
returned.
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/missions/quikscat/.
QuikSCAT is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington,
DC, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.