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Voice off Screen: Well all eyes are on Hurricane Matthew as it barrels towards

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Florida, NASA has some new views of this hurricane and 

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here to show us these new views and tell us what NASA is learning is Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum

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at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, thanks for joining us. Dalia: Thanks for having me

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Voice off Screen: So Hurricane Matthew is the strongest hurricane to develop in the atlantic

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in almost a decade, how are scientists using satellites to look

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inside of the storm? Dalia: Well NASA has a very powerful suite of tools to better understand

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that hurricanes as well as the environmental conditions causing them to move and intensify

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One Specific satellite is the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission

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Which can look layer by layer through the storm like a cat scan to better understand 

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hurricane intensity in the form of heavy precipitation as well as

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how it's distributed across the storm. this is a view from October 2nd

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when the storm was a category 4, and we have rainfall from the eye

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all the way out to the rain bands extending 150 miles

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This is very important to better understand how these storms might be intensifying and

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this is valuable for weather prediction moving forward.

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Voice off Screen: This has been a slow moving but rapidly intensifying storm, how can

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images like this give us clues as to when a storm is about to intensify

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Hurricane Matthew intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5

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storm in a little over 24 hours on September 30th. Now this is very

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difficult process to currently model. And so by being able

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to see layer by layer through the storm at the precipitation we get a sense of 

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the energy of the storm, such as through the observation of hot towers

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or huge convective systems, and that gives us clues into

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the intensification process and where the storm may draw more energy from the ocean

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to further intensify

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Voice off Screen: Now Matthew produced torrential rains in the Caribbean and could produce significant

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rainfall in the US, can we see how

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this rainfall is accumulating from space. Dalia: Well with the help of an international

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satellite constellation, the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission, we can actually see around

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the world every 30 minutes, of where and when rain is falling. Now this helps

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us to better understand rainfall accumulation such as you're seeing here with Hurricane Matthew

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as it makes it's passage off of the coast of Haiti.

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and this is very important for understanding where we might have more

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extreme impacts from inland flooding, such as we experienced from Haiti and the Dominican Republic

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and even where that storm interacts with mountains and may cause landslides

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Voice off Screen: Now what is the future of how NASA will monitor hurricanes?

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Dalia: Well we have many many different satellites looking with their eyes pointed down

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to understand hurricanes, we also have a current field campaign

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with NOAA right now where we're flying NASA's Global Hawk

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to better understand Hurricane Matthew and the conditions that might be

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impacting it's behavior in terms of intensity, as well as

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it's path. but looking forward we have two new missions

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that are going to be launching in November, the GOES-R satellite which will give us really

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unprecedented new views of tracking these hurricanes, and another mission that's

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composed of small satellites, that allows us to see hurricanes

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the winds inside of them, tropical winds, and so by being able to piece

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together all of this information it gives much more powerful tools

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for operational centers like 

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for these types of events. Voice off Screen: Great and where can we learn more.

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Dalia: it's always important to consult your local forecast and the National Hurricane Center for up to date

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information on this storm, to see more satellite views of this storm

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please go to NASA.gov/hurricanes