Hurricane Isabel: Under the Hood (with popout boxes)

This visualization shows NOAA/GOES infrared (IR) data of Hurricane Isabel as it makes its way across the Atlantic towards landfall. The track of Isabel is shown using a color code to indicate the storm's category: green=tropical depression, yellow=tropical storm, red=category 1, light red=category 2, purple=category 3, light purple=category 4, white=category 5. The inset box on the left shows how the distribution of rainfall (circular sturctures below) and heat inside the storm (oblong structures above) fluctuated dramatically as the storm changed intensities. The warm core of the hurricane was the engine that drove the storm, allowing it to draw up energy from the ocean, gathering strength and size. The inset box to the right shows vital statistics about the hurricane including wind speed, pressure, etc. The background only of this animation (without the inset boxes) can be found under animation 2995.