Winston Over Fiji

  • Released Monday, February 29, 2016
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Joe Munchak describes the features of Tropical Cyclone Winston.

The NASA GPM satellite passed directly over Tropical Cyclone Winston just after it made landfall on the north coast of Viti Levu Island, which is the largest and most populated island in the nation of Fiji. At the time, Winston was one of the most intense tropical cyclones observed in the South Pacific Ocean, and took an unusual track on the way to Fiji, completing a large counter-clockwise loop during the preceding week.

NASA's GPM satellite is designed to measure rainfall using both passive microwave (GMI) and radar (DPR) instruments. GMI measuremensts are sensitive to the column-integrated rain and ice water, and cover a wide swath, whereas the DPR can observe 3D structures of radar signals reflected by rain and snow in a narrower swath. In this animation, the GMI rainfall estimates are shown at the earth's surface below the 3D storm structure revealed by DPR.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Monday, February 29, 2016.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:48 PM EDT.

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