Typhoon Maemi, September 11, 2003

  • Released Thursday, September 11, 2003
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This animation shows TRMM's view of Typhoon Maemi. Typhoon Maemi was located approximately 400 miles south-southest of Okinawa, Japan. At the time this image was taken, Maemi was classified as a Category 5 storm under the Saffir-Simpson scale because it was packing sustained winds of 172 mph with gusts to 200 mph.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) has provided some remarkable images of Super Typhoon Maemi. During the storm's most intense phase, TRMM was able to capture the evolution of Maemi's eyewall structure as it was starting to undergo a process known as 'eyewall replacement,' whereby two concentric eyewalls are present before the outer eyewall collapses down to replace the original inner eyewall. This process can occur in very intense typhoons and hurricanes.

This animation looks at the rain structure of Typhoon Maemi on September 11, 2003. The animation peels away the cloud layer and reveals the storm's rain structure. The yellow isosurface represents areas where at least 0.5 inches of rain fell per hour. The green isosurface show 1.0 inches of rain per hour and red displays where more than 2 inches of rain fell per hour.

The cloud layer

The cloud layer

The animation peels away the cloud layer and reveals the storms rain structure. The yellow isosurface represents areas where at least 0.5 inches of rain fell per hour. The green isosurface show 1.0 inches of rain per hour and red displays where more than 2 inches of rain fell per hour.

The animation peels away the cloud layer and reveals the storms rain structure. The yellow isosurface represents areas where at least 0.5 inches of rain fell per hour. The green isosurface show 1.0 inches of rain per hour and red displays where more than 2 inches of rain fell per hour.

The animation peels away the cloud layer and reveals the storms rain structure. The yellow isosurface represents areas where at least 0.5 inches of rain fell per hour. The green isosurface show 1.0 inches of rain per hour and red displays where more than 2 inches of rain fell per hour.

The animation peels away the cloud layer and reveals the storms rain structure. The yellow isosurface represents areas where at least 0.5 inches of rain fell per hour. The green isosurface show 1.0 inches of rain per hour and red displays where more than 2 inches of rain fell per hour.

Video slate image reads "Typhoon Maemi, September 11, 2003".

Video slate image reads "Typhoon Maemi, September 11, 2003".

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, September 11, 2003.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:57 PM EDT.

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