It’s been a while since my last post. Nonetheless, I’m hoping what started off as a quarantine project—to explore the planet while utilizing the countless ways of publicly accessible space-based data—will continue onwards.
What’s held me up recently has been a big move to Puerto Rico (!!) to start a new job working as a partner with Google’s Loon. Part of the challenge here is that beyond my normal duties of vehicle assembly and launch operations, I must also doge MINI-sized potholes in my MINI, deal with constantly non-functioning plumbing, and be weather obsessive.
The weather. It’s easy enough for me to be a weather nerd, but when two tropical storms have sandwiched my first three weeks here, the weather is really up front and center. Now that I am living in a coastal Caribbean town still scarred by Hurricane Maria, I’ve realized I have never previously thought much about hurricanes, their origins, structure, or even the severity of their destruction. Beyond tragic media imagery of damage post-storm, my California mindset has perhaps partly sheltered me from these once distant storms.
Now, as sea waters warm and atmospheric conditions align, it’s officially hurricane season here in Puerto Rico. (The word hurricane actually comes from the native Taino language of Puerto Rico). Given that Tropical Storm Laura recently passed overhead and eventually gained more energy over the Gulf of Mexico to grow to a Category 4 hurricane, I’ve been looking for near-real time tools to monitor fast-changing tropical weather.
While rapid data from satellites such as GOES or MODIS are extremely valuable to scientists, I was particularly curious how the media acquires more “polished” imagery that they use to communicate the storm severity and size to the public. One technique of merging satellite data into a comprehensive visual image is called GeoColor, which blends NOAA’s GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) cloud data with city light/dark sky features and land features from MODIS. For the August 26, 2020 image below, I used this tool to access GeoColor imagery.
GeoColor technique combines city lights, snow, IR cloud data from GOES and MODIS earth views into a comprehensive and striking image on the intersection of scientific value and art.
Ultimately, there is a lot to say about the satellites that get these data, the meteorological science behind hurricane prediction and the tracking and the destruction of Atlantic cyclones, but for now I will just let these images speak for themselves.
MODIS imagery modified from NASA’s EOSDIS Worldview. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
GeoColor imagery modified from NOAA/CIRA’s RAMMB/GOES Archive. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.