CAMEX images
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Jan. 15, 1999: High-resolution JPG copies of the pictures used in the Seeking new insight on hurricanes, the Scientist's Notebook issue about CAMEX-3, are available below. These pictures are available for non-exclusive use, free of royalty. Please credit NASA. Larger format copies of the aircraft photographs are available. For additional information, contact Dave Dooling.
Return to the CAMEX-3 story.
The Aug. 29 flight path of NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory is traced over a satellite image of Hurricane Danielle. NASA's DC-8 and ER-2 made numerous flights around and through several hurricanes and storms and returned a wealth of data like the radar views below, taken Sept. 22 as Hurricane Georges swept over Hispaniola. The ER-2 Doppler radar provided a dramatic cross-section view of Georges' eye, as the Dominican Republic received heavy rain (upper image). Subsequent rain caused significant loss of life. Rainfall apparently was significant when the 2.7 km-high (9000 ft) interior mountains produced what appears to be a huge thunderstorm over the mountains as shown in the blue rising moisture (lower image). (NASA)
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NASA aircraft used in CAMEX-3 were the ER-2, a single-seat, high-altitude research jet (top) and the DC-8 Airborne Laboratory (below), a converted jetliner with room for several scientists and their equipment (right). (NASA photos by Bill Ingalls)
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As it aims for the Bahama Islands and the United States, Hurricane Bonnie displays the pinwheel pattern that is classic of cyclobic storm systems. (NASA)
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This image by the Airborne Rain Mapping Radar (ARMAR) on the DC-8 shows shows a vertical slice through the northern eyewall of Hurricane Bonnie on Aug. 24. The slice is 65 km (40 mi) along the ground and 9 km (5.6 mi) up from the ocean surface (the white line; the below-surface image is a mirror-image return). The most intense precipitation, yellow and white at left, is the eyewall. Additional, less intense rain can be seen to the right (north) of the eyewall. In addition to the rain in the lower portion of the image, the ARMAR also sees ice-phase precipitation at higher altitudes (above about 5 km [3 mi]). The signal from ice particles is less strong than from liquid precipitation (rain) and is shown in red. The ice-phase particles are most likely aggregates (i.e., snow), which is typical at higher levels in storms even in the tropics. Also, to the left of center is a gap, or area of weak signal, can be seen between the eyewall and the rain to the right. Hurricanes typically have rain organized into spiral bands with gaps between bands. (NASA)
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A series of images depicts a section of Bonnie as seen by the Multispectral Atmospheric Mapping Sensor (MAMS, strips 1 and 2) and the Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR, strips 4-6) carried by the ER-2 over Hurricane Bonnie on August 26, 1998. These depict cloud cover and cold cloud tops in visible and infrared light, and rainfall and ice distribution as seen in microwave bands. (NASA)
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The Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment (LASE) made the first lidar measurements of water vapor inside the eye of a hurricane. LASE measured profiles of aerosols (upper) and water vapor (lower) when the DC-8 flew through the eye of Hurricane Bonnie on Aug. 26, 1998, just before the storm hit the east coast of the U.S. A broken cloud field was visually observed in Bonnie's eye. LASE measurements showed this eye to be quite large and revealed the precise altitudes of clouds within the eye. LASE also measured the vertical distribution of water vapor inside the eye of Bonnie during brief cloud free periods. LASE was mounted in the DC-8 Airborne Laboratory. (NASA; photo by Bill Ingalls)
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This plot illustrates the much colder cloud tops found in the eyewall in association with the thunderstorms compared to the relatively calm region of Bonnie's eye on Aug. 24. This image by the NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed (NAST-I) depicts the infrared spectrum in two locations of the storm the eye (in red) and in the eye wall (blue). (NASA)
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This image depicts temperatures (in degrees K) inside Hurricane Bonnie as seen in the 115-123 GHz microwave band as the ER-2 flew over on Aug. 26, 1998. The observations were made by the NPOESS Aircraft Sounder Testbed-Microwave Temperature Sounder (NAST-MTS). The channels shown are numbered in order of altitude (1 is the most transparent). The highest channel (7) shows upper-troposphere warming over the center of the hurricane, and the lower-altitude channels show increasingly intense temperature perturbations from the rainbands. NAST-MTS contains two microwave radiometer systems covering two frequency ranges. The 115-123 GHz band is centered on the 118.75 GHz oxygen line. (NASA)
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The Multicenter Airborne Coherent Atmospheric Wind Sensor (MACAWS) produced the first first hurricane eyewall wind measurements during a pass through Hurricane Bonnie on Aug. 26. (NASA). (Image not used in Scientist's Notebook)
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Author: Dave Dooling
Curator: Bryan Walls
NASA Official: John M. Horack
