Southern California Mudslides

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Heavy Rainfall Leads to Southern California Mudslides

In January 2005, heavy rains in southern California caused flooding and mudslides. A flow of moisture known as a "Pineapple Express" because it originates in the Pacific subtropics near Hawaii can cause severe winter storms in California when conditions are right. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observered heavy rainfall near San Diego during a five-day period in January 2005. This visualization shows accumulation of rainfall--each frame shows the total amount of rain since the start of the measurement period.

This animation shows accumulated rainfall from 2005-01-06 through 2005-01-11. Each frame covers a three-hour period. Each image pixel is 0.25 degrees on a side; the total area covered is 20x20 degrees in longitude and latitude (80x80 pixels).

Metadata

  • Sensor

    TRMM/TMI

  • Animation ID

    3148

  • Start Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • End Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • Animator

    Jeff DeLaBeaujardiere

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2005/04/22

  • Scientist

    Robert Adler (NASA/GSFC)

  • Datasets

    Precipitation rate

  • Keywords

    GCMD--Location--Pacific Ocean, GCMD--Location--United States Of America, GCMD--EARTH SCIENCE--Atmosphere--Atmospheric Phenomena--Hurricanes, GCMD--EARTH SCIENCE--Atmosphere--Precipitation--Rain, GCMD--Platform--TRMM--Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, GCMD--Instrument--TMI--TRMM Microwave Imager

  • Story URL

    http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/ca_rains.html

  • Animation Type

    Regular