WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:04.080 Interviewer: From the Carolinas to Maine residents are bracing for heavy rains and flooding 2 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:08.230 as hurricane Joaquin nears the east coast, 3 00:00:08.230 --> 00:00:12.410 NASA scientists are keeping a close eye on the hurricane with the Global 4 00:00:12.410 --> 00:00:16.590 Precipitation Measurement Mission, and here to tell us more is Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum at 5 00:00:16.590 --> 00:00:20.760 NASAs Goddard's Space Flight Center, thanks for joining us. Interviewee: Thank you very much. 6 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:24.940 Interviewer: So you got a 3-d view of the hurricane, tell us what you're seeing? 7 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:29.110 Interviewer: Well the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission core observatory was launched in 8 00:00:29.110 --> 00:00:33.290 February of 2014 and it has the most advanced instruments to measure 9 00:00:33.290 --> 00:00:37.470 precipitation from space. Now what we see here is we can actually see 10 00:00:37.470 --> 00:00:41.650 layer by layer through the storm with the dual frequency precipitation radar. 11 00:00:41.650 --> 00:00:45.690 And that tells us a lot about the internal structure of the hurricane as it's developing. 12 00:00:45.690 --> 00:00:49.860 Now with Joaquin we were able to observe these features as both heavy 13 00:00:49.860 --> 00:00:54.040 rain below shown in red to green, as well as snow and ice a lot, and so 14 00:00:54.040 --> 00:00:58.230 what's really interesting about this image we took on September 29th is actually 15 00:00:58.230 --> 00:01:02.400 we can see rainfall and snow piling up on the eastern part of the storm 16 00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:06.580 which indicates there's actually pretty strong environmental winds that are 17 00:01:06.580 --> 00:01:10.760 inhibiting it from getting more intense but we know that soon after that the storm 18 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:14.940 the winds died down and the storm was able to gain in strength. 19 00:01:14.940 --> 00:01:19.120 Interviewer: So what's causing the hurricane to intensify into a 20 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:23.300 stronger storm? Interviewee: Well initially the storm was sitting over a pool of warm 21 00:01:23.300 --> 00:01:27.470 water, but they had really strong winds. But once those environmental winds 22 00:01:27.470 --> 00:01:31.650 died down, the storm was able to rapidly intensify. And so 23 00:01:31.650 --> 00:01:35.830 what we can do with the GPM satellite, in fact it took an image 24 00:01:35.830 --> 00:01:40.010 just recently last night. You can see this kind of strong rainfall 25 00:01:40.010 --> 00:01:44.180 associated with this kind of classic donut shape of a very intense storm. 26 00:01:44.180 --> 00:01:48.350 And sort of like an x-ray of a storm. So this is really important information 27 00:01:48.350 --> 00:01:52.520 for hurricane forecasters around the world such as the National Hurricane Center to get a 28 00:01:52.520 --> 00:01:56.690 better sense of a storm structure as well as where it might go. 29 00:01:56.690 --> 00:02:00.880 Interviewer: Well the east coast has already experienced heavy rainfall from a stalled weather system 30 00:02:00.880 --> 00:02:05.060 what can we expect as hurricane Joaquin moves northward. Interviewee: That's right we're already pretty 31 00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:09.240 saturated here so one of the things that we're able to do with this 32 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:13.420 Global Precipitation Measurement Mission, network of satellites is have 33 00:02:13.420 --> 00:02:17.580 a continuous picture of rainfall that allows us to look at accumulation. 34 00:02:17.580 --> 00:02:21.760 Now there was a pretty large frontal system that's been stalled out on the eastern seaboard 35 00:02:21.760 --> 00:02:25.940 for quite sometime. And so with this rainfall accumulation we can observe 36 00:02:25.940 --> 00:02:30.120 those heavy rainfall totals as well as where it might cause flooding 37 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:34.300 as well as see where Joaquin is developing and causing a lot of intense rain 38 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:38.490 in the Bahamas as it became a category four storm. 39 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:42.670 Interviewer: How will forecasters and emergency managers use this information? 40 00:02:42.670 --> 00:02:46.850 Interviewee: Well the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission network of satellites 41 00:02:46.850 --> 00:02:51.030 provides this global picture of rain and snow everywhere around the world every 42 00:02:51.030 --> 00:02:55.210 30 minutes and that data is critical to track storms around the world 43 00:02:55.210 --> 00:02:59.380 as well as in our backyard. So in the US we're able to actually 44 00:02:59.380 --> 00:03:03.560 see how the storm is changing and moving, and that data 45 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:07.740 which is freely available goes to a lot of different weather forecasting agencies 46 00:03:07.740 --> 00:03:11.920 around the world and is important to tell us what are weather might be today as well 47 00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:16.090 how are climate might change in the future. Interviewer: And where can we learn more? 48 00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:20.270 Interviewee: We learn more about this at nasa.gov/gpm as well as at out 49 00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:24.440 Twitter handle nasa_rain. Interviewer: Great! Thanks so much for joining us. 50 00:03:24.440 --> 00:03:26.976 Interviewee: Thank you very much.