During the last four years of the CyMISS (Tropical Cy clone Intensity M easurements from the ISS ) program, our team has acquired image sequences of several dozen powerful hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones scattered across the globe. One of the best observed of these powerful storms was Hurricane Matthew during the first half of October 2016. Between October 1 and October 13, the crew of the ISS secured a total of eight images sequences in support of CyMISS from as many overpasses on seven different days as this powerful hurricane worked its way across the Caribbean Sea and up the US Atlantic coast. The individual photographs from the original 240-image sequences were remapped to approximate an overhead view before they were stitched together into a series of synoptic color mosaics shown below for each overpass. Each mosaic covers an area of 1,500 by 1,000 kilometers.

November’s Image of the Month is a 3D view of Hurricane Matthew created using images acquired around 20:06 GMT (4:06 PM EDT) on October 7, 2016. The eye of the storm was located at about 30.1° N, 80.7° W and was being downgraded to a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 110 mph as it moved along Florida’s Atlantic coast. In order to create this anaglyphic 3D image (left eye red, right eye blue), the red channels of the individual photographs from the original 240-image sequence were remapped to approximate an overhead view before various parts of the frames were stitched together into a synoptic 3D mosaic covering an area of 1,600 by 1,200 kilometers. Processed versions of the images’ red channels were used to cut through the atmospheric haze to provide a clearer 3D view of the storm with a stereo angle of about 15° as well as the southeastern US visible beyond the storm including the Gulf coast out to the Mississippi delta. Clouds associated with Hurricane Matthew clearly stand out above the ground and lower altitude cumulus clouds over the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern US. Because of the disruption of the storm as it interacted with the mainland, a clearly defined eye was not visible at this time. A high resolution version of this synoptic 3D mosaic with an image scale of 500 meters/pixel can be viewed by clicking on the image below.

The goal of the ongoing CyMISS (Tropical Cy clone Intensity M easurements from the ISS ) project is to acquire image sequences of intense tropical cyclones (TCs), such as hurricanes, to support the development of an improved remote sensing method to determine more accurately the strength of these destructive storms using stereoscopy. The CyMISS team at Visidyne would like to thank the crew of the ISS as well as the staff at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center for their ongoing efforts. The original images are courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The work presented here is supported in part under CASIS Grant UA-2019-013.

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