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Jeff Weber at UCAR generated an image of Hurricane Katrina using GEMPAK software and NOAA data.
The peak winds of over 100 miles per hour that buffeted New Orleans, Louisiana, during Hurricane Katrina could have been much worse had the storm made landfall at a different moment in the cycle of its eyewall. Long-lived, intense hurricanes often go through an eyewall replacement cycle that takes a day or so to complete. The result is collapse of the main eyewall and temporary weakening of the storm. This water vapor band image shows Katrina's weakened eyewall being further disrupted by interaction with the land surface at 5:45 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005.
Credit: Jeff Weber, a University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) scientist, generated the image using GEMPAK software and data from the water vapor and infrared bands of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-E (Geostationary Operational Environmental) satellite.
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
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