These four images show a series of wind fields from the first set of NASA Scatterometer wind speed and direction measurements. The sequence was taken every 12 hours over two days, September 20 and 21, 1996. The four images show typhoons Violet and Tom as yellow-orange spiral features. Typhoon Violet is closer to Japan and during the two days of observations the storm moved landward, causing death and severe property damage. Typhoon Tom is observed moving out into the ocean and away from Japan. The background color indicates wind speed, with blue being low winds and red moderate winds; yellow is high winds. The the white arrows show the direction of the wind. Data like these are being used by the National Weather Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in their global forecast models. NSCAT was launched August 16, 1996, onboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite. The mission represents the first major collaboration in Earth remote sensing between the two nations. JPL developed, built and manages the NSCAT instrument for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. This "first look" image is still uncalibrated, but images like this will be routinely available after completion of the calibration validation phase on the project's World Wide Web site at http://www.jpl.nasa…#####
Description
These four images show a series of wind fields from the first set of NASA Scatterometer wind speed and direction measurements. The sequence was taken every 12 hours over two days, September 20 and 21, 1996. The four images show typhoons Violet and Tom as yellow-orange spiral features. Typhoon Violet is closer to Japan and during the two days of observations the storm moved landward, causing death and severe property damage. Typhoon Tom is observed moving out into the ocean and away from Japan. The background color indicates wind speed, with blue being low winds and red moderate winds; yellow is high winds. The the white arrows show the direction of the wind. Data like these are being used by the National Weather Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in their global forecast models. NSCAT was launched August 16, 1996, onboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite. The mission represents the first major collaboration in Earth remote sensing between the two nations. JPL developed, built and manages the NSCAT instrument for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. This "first look" image is still uncalibrated, but images like this will be routinely available after completion of the calibration validation phase on the project's World Wide Web site at http://www.jpl.nasa…#####
