NOAAVisualizations

When volcanoes erupt, toxic plumes are released, or wildfires burn, NOAA's HYSPLIT model is used to answer some fundamental questions: where will it go and how concentrated will it be? The HYSPLIT wild fire smoke model run on August 21st, 2013 at 6z shows the cloud of smoke being emitted from many of the wildfires raging in the Western U.S. The actual locations of these point-source pollutants can be seen as very high concentration smoke areas, colored dark brown. The data shows the plumes reaching across the Continental United States by Friday, August 23rd.

The ability of the NOAA GOES satellite to detect aerosols is an important input to these models, as are the wind measurements derived from GOES infrared imagery.

NOAA's GOES-12 satellite was decommissioned on August 16th, 2013 after 3,788 days in service. From April 2003 -- May 2010, GOES-12 served as GOES East, providing "eye in the sky" monitoring for such memorable events as the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and the series of blizzards during the winter of 2009-2010. After suffering thruster control issues, GOES-12 was taken out of normal service and moved to provide greater coverage of the Southern Hemisphere as the first-ever GOES South. During that time it provided enhanced severe weather monitoring for South America.

This animation shows one image from each day of the satellite's life -- a total of 3,641 full disk visible images.

On August 16, 2013, NOAA officially decommissioned the GOES-12 satellite. As the official weather satellite monitoring the eastern U.S. and Atlantic Ocean from 2003-2010, it tracked hundreds of severe weather events - but none more iconic than Hurricane Katrina. This loops shows colorized infrared imagery from the GOES-12 satellite as it tracks the storm during late August of 2005.

NOAA's satellites have detected a plume of dust moving off the coast of Africa. Though quite common, this particular plume, also called the Saharan Air Layer, has a relatively constrained area of high concentration. This animation uses a recently enhanced version of the NOAA NGAC aerosol model to show how the plume is expected to travel across the Atlantic Basin over the next four days. The Saharan Air Layer plays an important role in lessening "cyclogenesis," or the formation of hurricanes.

Vegetation changes are seen to subtlety change over one year in this video using vegetation index data from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. More information at www.nnvl.noaa.gov/green.php

Vegetation changes are seen to subtlety change over one year in this video using vegetation index data from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite. More information at www.nnvl.noaa.gov/green.php

Dr. Felix Kogan, a physical scientist at the NOAA Satellite and Information Service, discusses how vegetation data from the Suomi NPP satellite is advancing the ability to detect and monitor greenness and drought changes over the planet.

Although 75% of the planet is a relatively unchanging ocean of blue, the remaining 25% of Earth's surface is a dynamic green. Data from the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite is able to detect these subtle differences in greenness. The resources on this page highlight our ever-changing planet, using highly detailed vegetation index data from the satellite, developed by scientists at NOAA. The darkest green areas are the lushest in vegetation, while the pale colors are sparse in vegetation cover either due to snow, drought, rock, or urban areas. Satellite data from April 2012 to April 2013 was used to generate these animations and images.

For the past week, forecast models showed unstable conditions that could lead to significant severe weather events. NOAA put the GOES-14 satellite in Super Rapid Scan Operations mode on June 12 and 13. The satellite took images every minute in a truncated scan area, resulting in very detailed imagery of the storms developing out of the upper Midwestern U.S. This movie shows all of the available visible images from 0920Z on June 13 through 0129Z on June 14.

Shirley Murillo, a meteorologist with the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, discusses how the tail-mounted radars on the NOAA P-3 hurricane hunter aircraft provide a unique understanding of the inner-workings of hurricanes. As the P-3 flies through storms, the radar continuously scans the storm in 3-D and transmits that data back to the National Hurricane Center. This data can be quickly incorporated into forecast models, providing the best possible estimates about track and intensity for the storm.

On May 20, 2013 as conditions were ripening for severe weather outbreaks in the U.S. Plains, the NOAA Satellite and Information Service placed the GOES-13 satellite into rapid scan operations - meaning that the satellite went from taking imagery every 30 minutes to every 5 minutes. The added frequency greatly assists meteorologists in understanding rapidly evolving weather events, such as the tornadoes that struck Oklahoma that day. This animation shows the GOES-13 visible imagery during the daylight hours of the 20th.

Bob Kuligowski, a meteorologist with the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research, discusses how the satellites are used to monitor for potential flash flood conditions. The infrared sensors on weather satellites can detect cloud top temperatures. Usually the coldest, highest cloud tops are associated with areas of heavy rainfall. These measurements are especially critical in open ocean areas or in countries without sophisticated ground-based rain gauge and radar networks for more precise rainfall estimates, along with mountainous areas where radar measurements are obscured by the terrain.

A series of intense storms in the Arctic has caused fracturing of the sea ice around the Beaufort Sea along the northern coasts of Alaska and Canada. High-resolution imagery from the Suomi NPP satellite shows the evolution of the cracks forming in the ice, called leads, from February 17 -- March 18 2013. The general circulation of the area is seen moving the ice westward along the Alaskan coast.

What started out as an area of low pressure off the coast of Texas on March 12, 1993 quickly developed into what many people refer to as "The Storm of the Century." The evolution of this winter superstorm can be seen in this imagery from the GOES-7 satellite, using both visible and colorized infrared data. As the storm developed in the Deep South, it spawned 15 tornadoes in Florida and dumped from 8 to 33 inches of snow from Alabama to the Carolinas. As the storm moved north and intensified, conditions became even worse. With a central pressure of 961 millibars, usually found only in Category 3 hurricanes, whiteout conditions were common. Snowfall exceeded 2.5 feet in some locations.

When the storm passed, at least 270 people were dead and $5.5 billion dollars in damage were sustained. The National Climatic Data Center still ranks the 1993 as the most impactful winter storm to hit the Northeast. Though the 1978 and 1996 blizzards may have brought more intense localized conditions, the scale of the 1993 storm has not been equaled in recent history.

A winter storm that brought 24 inches of snow to Rocky Boy, MT, 11 inches to La Grange Point, IL, and 9 inches to Bellefontaine, OH, impacts the mid-Atlantic on Wednesday, March 6 before delivering more snow to parts of the Northeast. Heavy wet snow, more than a foot deep in spots, in parts of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia resulted in downed trees and power outages, while a sloppy mix of rain and snow fell along the I-95 corridor, including Washington, D.C. This movie spans March 3 through the morning of March 6, 2013, made from GOES East infrared imagery.

This movie shows the imagery over New England during the historic snow event spanning February 8-10, 2013. The snowstorm in New England brought historic snowfall to many communities in New England with snow totals in excess of 2 feet. Blizzard warnings along the coast were put in place ahead of high winds that reached 83 miles per hour in Cuttyhunk, MA, 82 in Westport, CT, and 81 in Mount Washington, ME. This movie starts February 6, 2013, and goes through February 10, 2013. The imagery is a mix of visible and infrared channels from GOES East.

A drop in the jet stream sent temperatures across the United States plummeting over the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday weekend. The pronounced change in temperatures can be seen in this weather data from NOAA/NCEP's Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis. Areas colored blue are below freezing. The diurnal cycle of heating and cooling can be seen over time, but the pattern is clear: much of the U.S. is pretty cold.

Plumes of moisture stream across the entire Pacific basin and head toward the U.S. coastline. Over the first week of December 2012, over a foot of rain is expected to fall in parts of Northern California and up into British Columbia.

This animation shows the total precipitable water in the atmosphere for November 28 - December 6, 2012 using the NOAA Global Forecast System model - one of the main weather models used by forecasters across the world. Dark blues are areas of high moisture content in the atmosphere. The large "tongues" of moisture can be seen extending thousands of miles across the ocean.

After 19 named storms (10 hurricanes), the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season has come to a close. This season was a relatively active one -- with 7 more storms than the historical average. Though the official season lasts from June 1 -- November 30th, 2012 started off early with Alberto and Beryl appearing in May. Later on, Isaac pummeled the Gulf Coast, and in October, Sandy caused destruction throughout the Northeast.

This animation shows all of the GOES East satellite imagery from June 1 -- November 28th. In September, NOAA was able to quickly transition GOES East from the GOES-13 to the backup GOES-14 satellite when problems arose with the GOES-13 imager. GOES-13 returned to service in mid-October. Slight shifts in the imagery in this animation can be seen in late September out in the eastern Atlantic, however it is also clear that no service was lost during this transition. During the 2012 Season, NOAA also began ingesting data from the newly launched Suomi-NPP satellite into the operational forecast models, providing more accurate measurements of atmospheric properties to better predict storm intensification and movement.

Five days before Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coastline, NOAA's National Hurricane Center accurately projected the storm's path. This satellite animation shows Sandy's progress from the southwest Atlantic northward into the Northeast U.S. and how it followed the National Hurricane Center's track issued at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 25 (Advisory #13). This movie's imagery is from GOES East from October 21, 2012 0345Z through October 31, 2012 1315Z and uses the track file located at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gis/forecast/archive/al182012_5da...

As the NOAA GOES-13 satellite provides on-going operational coverage of Hurricane Sandy, a special Super Rapid Scan Operations (SRSO) has been scheduled for GOES-14, NOAA's backup geostationary weather satellite. Focusing just on the area of the storm, the GOES-14 SRSO is capturing infrared and visible data every minute and relaying that information to forecasters on the ground. This animation shows the GOES-14 SRSO for October 29, 2012 as Hurricane Sandy is approaching the U.S. coastline. The GOES-14 SRSO imagery is intended for research purposes in preparation for the next generation of geostationary satellites, called GOES-R. Highly detailed cloud structures can be seen in this imagery, along with precise tracking of the center of circulation.

NOAA's geostationary satellites are typically centered over 75 degrees west longitude (GOES East) and 135 degrees (GOES West). However, when the satellite in the GOES East position began having data quality issues, the backup satellite GOES-14 was called into service. From its position at 105 degrees west longitude, it has been acting as GOES East for the past week. NOAA has decided that it is time to move GOES-14 into the traditional GOES East spot in space, replacing GOES-13. The maneuver begins October 1, 2012 and will take 33 days. At that time, GOES-13 will be moved into a storage spot where work to diagnose and fix the data quality issues from the imager and sounder instruments will continue.

The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean dropped below the previous all-time record set in 2007. This year also marks the first time that there has been less than 4 million square kilometers (1.54 million square miles) of sea ice since satellite observations began in 1979. This animation shows the 2012 time-series of ice extent using sea ice concentration data from the DMSP SSMI/S satellite sensor. The black area represents the daily average (median) sea ice extent over the 1979-2000 time period. Layered over top of that are the daily satellite measurements from January 1 -- September 14, 2012. A rapid melt begins in July, whereby the 2012 ice extents fall far below the historical average. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (www.nsidc.org) will confirm the final minimum ice extent data and area once the melt stabilizes, usually in mid-September.

GOES-14 has been placed in Super Rapid Scan Mode to support research and development efforts on the next generation of geostationary satellites. This movie shows the visible channel one minute imagery of Isaac from August 24 through landfall on August 28 into August 29, 2012.

Hurricane Isaac made landfall in Louisiana in the evening of August 28, 2012. During the day, NOAA's GOES-14 satellite took images of the storm at 1 minute intervals, showing the development of Isaac from a tropical storm to a hurricane in great temporal detail. The imagery is from the visible channel and runs from August 28 at 1008Z through August 29 at 0055Z.

GOES-14 has been placed in Super Rapid Scan Mode to support research and development efforts on the next generation of geostationary satellites. This movie shows the visible channel one minute imagery of Isaac from August 24 through August 27, 2012.

This combination of GOES East infrared and visible channel imagery follows Isaac's center of circulation across the Caribbean Sea starting August 21 at 0030Z and ends August 27, 2012 at 1445Z.

By early July 2012, more than 60% of the contiguous United States was experiencing drought conditions, nearly double the area from early January. This animation shows monthly composites of D1 to D4 categories of drought in the contiguous U.S. over the time frame January 2012 to July 2012 using data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. The Drought Monitor summary map identifies general drought areas, labeling droughts by intensity, with D1 (lightest color) being the least intense and D4 (darkest color) being the most intense.

The United States is experiencing one of the worst droughts since the 1950's. Hot temperatures and low precipitation have created a visible impact across the nation: stressed and dying vegetation. NOAA's satellites are used to measure the impact of drought on vegetation, and in many ways, the ability to measure the impact on vegetation provides a more readily understandable way to measure drought. This animation shows monthly composites of vegetation health index derived from data from the AVHRR sensor on-board the NOAA POES satellite. Areas colored in shades of orange are experiencing moderate through exceptional drought conditions and are consistent with areas of vegetation stress.

A week-long heat wave and an upper level disturbance over Chicago combined to spawn an historic storm featuring a rare and destructive phenomenon known as a derecho. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath. As a result, the term "straight-line wind damage" sometimes is used to describe derecho damage. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho. This movie shows imagery from the GOES East satellite starting at 0015Z on June 29, 2012 and ending 2345Z on June 30, 2012.

When volcanoes erupt, toxic plumes are released, or wildfires burn, NOAA's HYSPLIT model is used to answer some fundamental questions: where will it go and how concentrated will it be? The HYSPLIT wild fire smoke model run on June 29th, 2012 at 6z shows the cloud of smoke being emitted from many of the wildfires raging in the Western U.S. The actual locations of these point-source pollutants can be seen as very high concentration smoke areas. The ability of the GOES satellite todetect aerosols is an important input to these models, as are the wind measurements derived from GOES infrared imagery.

HYSPLIT Model: www.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT_wildfire.php
NOAA air quality website: airquality.weather.gov

The NOAA GOES satellites are most commonly associated with the non-stop coverage of severe weather over the western hemisphere. However, one of the sensors on-board the GOES spacecraft, the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI), points towards the Sun, providing constant monitoring of space weather, especially solar flares. On June 5th, the GOES-15 SXI captured the transit of Venus across the Sun. It can be seen in this animation as a small dark spot that crosses from left to right. The next transit of Venus visible by Earth will occur in 2117.

Hurricane Andrew was only the third Category 5 storm to impact the U.S. when it made landfall on August 24, 1992 near Homestead, FL. A reanalysis of weather data in 2004 revealed that the storm made landfall with 166 mph winds. Until Hurricane Katrina followed in 2005, Andrew was the most costly U.S. tropical cyclone in history, with damages exceeding $26.5 billion (1992 USD). This animation was created by resurrecting archived GOES-7 satellite data.

After a decade of warmer than average Aprils in the U.S., few highest monthly maximum temperature records for April remain from the 20th Century. This image plots the decade in which the highest average April temperature record was set for different regions of the country, starting in 1911 (i.e., 1911-1920) and running through 2010, using data from the NOAA National Climatic Center's detailed archives. The records broken in 2011 and 2012 are shown separately. Most of the pixel colors are associated with the 2001-2010, 2011 and 2012 time periods. Gray indicates no data (records) are associated with that area of the country.

The conditions were "perfect" for a monstrous storm, a meteorological time bomb that would explode in the northern Atlantic Ocean creating waves ten stories high and imperiling the New England fleet.Bob Case, a NOAA National Weather Service meteorologist at the Boston, MA forecast office: "It was an unprecedented set of circumstances. A strong disturbance associated with a cold front moved along the U.S.- Canadian border on October 27 and passed through New England pretty much without incident. At the same time, a huge high pressure system was forecast to build over southeast Canada. When a low pressure system along the front moved into the Maritimes southeast of Nova Scotia, it began to intensify due to the cold dry air introduced from the north. These circumstances alone, could have created a strong storm. But then, like throwing gasoline on a fire, a dying hurricane Grace delivered immeasurable tropical energy to create the perfect storm."
The imagery in the movie was taken by GOES-7 between 0500Z on October 28, 1991 and 2330Z November 4, 1991. On April 12, 2012 GOES-7 was retired from service through a final burn from its booster, which moved it approximately 186 miles (300 km) above its operational geostationary orbit to a graveyard orbit, so that it will not interfere with other satellites. The final maneuver to adjust the spin rate of the spacecraft and deplete all remaining fuel happened at 2 a.m. EDT April 12, 2012. The communications packages were turned off then and the satellite powered down. GOES-7 is the only satellite in the history of NOAA's geostationary program to serve both as the GOES-East and GOES-West spacecraft in the course of normal operations.

A Nor'easter storm is bringing heavy rains and snow to many parts of the Northeast U.S. The system developed as a large front moved across the U.S. on Friday, combining with a smaller convective system off the coast of Florida. As this system moved north, it intensified and drew in cold air from the Great Lakes region. Lake --effect snows of up to 12-18 inches have fallen in the higher elevations of West Virginia through New York. Winter storm warnings have been issued by the National Weather Service for these areas. This time-lapse animation uses infrared imagery from the NOAA GOES-13 satellite to track the storms' movement from April 20-23, 2012. Nor'easters are most commonly associated with winter storms, but can occur at any time of the year.

According to NOAA scientists at the National Climatic Data Center (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/), record and near-record breaking temperatures dominated the eastern two-thirds of the nation and contributed to the warmest March on record for the contiguous United States, a record that dates back to 1895. This animation shows the locations of each of the 7,755 daytime and 7,517 nighttime records (or tied records) in sequence over the 31 days in March.

Paul Schlatter, a meteorologist with the NOAA National Weather Service, discusses how the introduction of dual-polarization radar technology is helping improve the identification of tornadoes, and improve NOAA's ability to issues warnings to the affected areas. Dual-polarization radars upgrades are being installed around the country, and should be completed by mid 2013.

Ivan Csiszar, a physical scientist with the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research, discusses how the satellites are used to detect wildfires across the globe. Not only can satellites detect the location of fires, but also how they spread over time. The background image uses color enhancements of Landsat satellite imagery of the 2009 Los Angeles Station Fire to show how satellite sensors can distinguish between fire targets (bright yellow), burned areas (brown), unburned areas (green), and even populated areas (purple).

Link to satellite mapping of active fire locations: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html

Tim Schmit, a research scientist with the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research based at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, discusses how the GOES satellite has evolved over the years from a simple camera in space to a complex suite of sensors for monitoring severe weather and forecasting weather conditions.

After the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, tons of debris was swept into the Pacific. Much of it is buoyant enough to float on the surface and can be moved around by small scale currents and large scale circulation patterns, such as the North Pacific Gyre. The gyre, bounded by the Kuroshio Current on the west, California Current on the east, and Equatorial Current on the south tends to entrain debris in the center of the Pacific basin, creating what is commonly known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Though the bulk of the marine debris remains in the ocean for years in an area north of Hawaii, individual pieces are continually washing up on the continental and island shores that border the basin. NOAA's Marine Debris Program leads efforts to track and remove much of this existing trash, and is currently assessing the tsunami debris. Scientists as NOAA's Earths System Research Laboratory developed the debris dispersion model, shown here. Using five years of historical weather patterns, the model is used to approximate how debris will circulate across the basin.

On Tuesday, March 6, 2012, a large solar flare erupted from the Sun. Data from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center suggest that the coronal mass ejection - the blast of plasma from the Sun's surface -could reach Earth by early Thursday morning (March 8, 2012). This animation shows the output from the WSA-Enlil space weather model for solar winds, developed in partnership with NASA and academia and run operationally by NOAA. The white through yellow and orange plumes indicate the density of the coronal mass ejection plasma as it heads towards Earth (orange is the highest density). The sun is centered as an orange circle. The size of Earth is represented in relative scale -- a small dot compared to the size of the Sun or the coronal mass ejection. Geomagnetic storms from these kinds of space weather events can affect the power grid, navigation systems and other technologies. NOAA provides space weather forecasting for the nation, and forecasters at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center are issuing updates regularly.
The impressive flare from Tuesday evening and a corresponding radiation storm are already triggering high-frequency radio outages at Earth's poles, which could last a day or more, and possible temporary outages on parts of the day-lit Earth. Hear the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's Robert Rutledge describe the different kinds of space weather in his video on this channel.

On March 2, 2012, NOAA put its GOES-13 satellite into rapid scan mode, meaning that imagery was taken every 5 minutes to carefully monitor the developing severe weather system in the Midwest U.S. This animation shows the visible imagery from the morning and afternoon of March 2nd. In the 1km visible imagery, the overshoooting cloud tops associated with severe weather and tornado reports can be seen. Even at dawn, signs of severe weather were present in the satellite imagery. Because visible satellite imagery is only available in the daylight hours, the cloud imagery fades in from east to west as the sun rises over the land.

Hurricane Jeanne produced heavy rain over Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and caused an estimated 3000 or more deaths in Haiti. Some 200,000 people in Gonaives lost their homes, belongings and livelihoods to the hurricane's torrential rainfall and flooding. Jeanne originated from a tropical wave that tracked west across the Atlantic from Africa. A tropical depression formed on September 13 and had strengthened to a tropical storm the next day as it moved slowly over the Leeward Islands. Jeanne's slow forward motion across the Caribbean contributed to torrential rainfall along its path. These rains and resultant fresh-water flooding and mudslides caused thousands to die in Haiti. By September 18 the remnants of Hurricane Ivan's mid-level circulation over the eastern United States combined with an extratropical short wave trough to erode the ridge to the north of Jeanne, placing the storm in a weak steering flow that persisted for five days. Tropical Storm Jeanne moved slowly northward over the southeastern Bahamas then moved away from the coast in a broad anticyclonic loop out about 500 nautical miles into the Atlantic, east of the northwestern Bahamas. By the time it completed this loop on September 23 Jeanne had strengthened to a hurricane with 85 knot winds. The extratropical trough previously located over the northeastern U.S. coast moved eastward and was replaced by a large deep-layer migratory ridge that propelled Jeanne on a track just north of due westward. On September 24 Jeanne moved over its earlier track and encountered cooler waters caused by upwelling along that track. Moving west, away from the upwelled cooler water, the winds increased to 100 knots (category three) on September 25 as the center moved over Abaco Island and then Grand Bahama Island in the northern Bahamas. Jeanne made landfall on the east coast of Florida early on September 26, the eye crossing the coast at the southern end of Hutchinson Island just east of Stuart. Jeanne moved across central Florida, weakened and began to recurve around the western periphery of the migratory ridge mentioned above. The hurricane weakened to a tropical storm north of Tampa in the afternoon of September 26 and then weakened to a tropical depression about 24 hours later while moving northward across central Georgia. The depression, still accompanied by heavy rain, moved over the Carolinas, Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsula. It merged with a frontal zone and became extratropical on September 29 as it moved eastward off the U.S mid-Atlantic
coast. On September 10 Hurricane Ivan is in the Caribbean and on September 18 Hurricane Karl can be seen in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. This movie shows the GOES East imagery from September 10 through 30, 2004.

Hurricane Ivan was a classical, long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that reached Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale three times. It was also the strongest hurricane on record that far southeast of the Lesser Antilles. Ivan caused considerable damage and loss of life as it churned through the Caribbean Sea. After passing Grenada and moving into the southeastern Caribbean Sea, Ivan reached category 5 strength for the first time on September 8. As Ivan passed south of Jamaica it weakened to category 4 strength, in part due to an eyewall replacement, then moved away from Jamaica. The storm rapidly intensified to category 5 strength a second time on September 11 while it remained in a low vertical shear environment. After a brief weakening, Ivan regained category 5 strength for the third time on September 12 west of Grand Cayman Island bringing widespread wind damage and a storm surge that completely over swept the island, except for the extreme northeastern portion. Ivan maintained category 5 strength for an unusually long 30 hours into September 13. Ivan then moved into the Gulf of Mexico and encountered increased vertical shear and dry air entrainment, yet made landfall as a category 3 hurricane just west of Gulf Shores, AL on September 16. A northeastward motion on land continued for the next 36 hours before Ivan merged with a frontal system and became an extratropical low over the DelMarVa peninsula on September 18. Even as a weak tropical depression, Ivan was a prodigious rain and tornado producer causing flash floods and tornado damage across much of the southeastern United States. As an extratropical low, the remnant circulation of Ivan was still identifiable in both surface and upper-air data. Over the next 3 days, the low moved south and southwestward and eventually crossed the southern Florida peninsula from the Atlantic on the morning of September 21 and emerged over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico later that afternoon. As Ivan moved westward across the warm water of the Gulf, the low began to re-acquire warm core, tropical characteristics and showers and thunderstorms started developing near the well-defined low-level circulation center. During the morning of September 22, Ivan completed a large anticyclonic loop and reconnaissance aircraft reports indicated that it had become a tropical depression again over the central Gulf of Mexico. Ivan regained tropical strength 6 hours later when it was located south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Tropical Storm Ivan turned northwestward and made landfall as a tropical depression in extreme southwestern Louisiana on September 24. After landfall, Ivan quickly dissipated over the upper Texas coastal area northwest of Beaumont. Including its extratropical phase, Ivan existed for 22.5 days and produced a track more than 5600 nautical miles long. This movie shows the GOES East imagery from September 1 through September 30, 2004. At the beginning of the sequence Hurricane Frances moves northwest of Hispaniola on its way to landfall in Florida. At the end of the sequence Hurricane Jeanne comes ashore in Florida and moves up the east coast.

Al Powell, Director of NOAA's Center for Satellite Applications and Research, discusses how by analyzing global climate data they are finding connections between changes in fish populations and abrupt shifts in atmospheric pressure, wind patterns, and oceanic temperatures.

Pamela Grothe, from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, discusses how they build digital elevation models to help predict how a tsunami wave might inundate the coast during impact.

The Nation runs on NOAA satellites.

NOAA's satellites provide the bulk of the information for generating weather models, advisories, and warnings to the nation and world. Maintaining the operations and data acquisition from these satellites is a 24/7 process. This video was filmed at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Maryland where command, control, and data distribution systems are located.

NOAA's POES satellites measure the temperature of the ocean surface - one of the primary indicators of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (the climate cycle that changes between El Niño and La Niña every few years). This time-series shows the evolution of the most recent La Niña, which is currently weakening in intensity.