WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.990 2 00:00:04.010 --> 00:00:08.170 As Hurricane Joaquin nears the East Coast, NASA scientists are keeping 3 00:00:08.190 --> 00:00:12.190 a close eye on the storm and here to tell us more about what NASA is seeing 4 00:00:12.210 --> 00:00:16.200 is Dr. Scott Braun from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Thanks for joining us. 5 00:00:16.220 --> 00:00:20.210 Happy to be here. [off camera] Start by telling us. You have a new 3D 6 00:00:20.230 --> 00:00:24.390 view of Hurricane Joaquin. What are you seeing? 7 00:00:24.410 --> 00:00:28.400 Well the Global Precipitation Measurement mission launched in February 2014 8 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:32.430 and it's carrying some very sophisticated instruments. 9 00:00:32.450 --> 00:00:36.610 One of which gives us a 3D view of storms 10 00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:40.630 measuring rain and snow layer by layer throughout the storm to give us 11 00:00:40.650 --> 00:00:44.820 essentually a CAT scan of the storm. Now here we're taking a look at Joaquin when 12 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:48.830 it was just a strong tropical storm near the Bahamas and 13 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:52.840 the yellow and green colors represent 14 00:00:52.860 --> 00:00:56.850 heavy precipitation near the surface. The blue colors represent snow and ice 15 00:00:56.870 --> 00:01:01.000 spreading out near the top of the storm and in fact at this time was spreading out over the center of the storm 16 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:05.030 And from this type of information we can get 17 00:01:05.050 --> 00:01:09.040 some insight as to how the storm is behaving and how it may potentially 18 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:13.040 change in the near future. 19 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:17.230 [off camera] Now tell us what's causing Hurricane Joaquin to intensify into a stronger storm? 20 00:01:17.250 --> 00:01:21.240 Well Joaquin has been sitting over very warm waters 21 00:01:21.260 --> 00:01:25.260 in the Bahamas and that provides the energy source for the hurricane. 22 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:29.270 Several days ago the environmental winds were fairly unfavorable for 23 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:33.290 developements, it was only slowly intensifying. But as those winds relaxed 24 00:01:33.310 --> 00:01:37.470 the storm was in a much more favorable environment and was able to very quickly 25 00:01:37.490 --> 00:01:41.500 up into a category 4 hurricane. 26 00:01:41.520 --> 00:01:45.670 [off camera] The East Coast has already experienced heavy rainfall from a stalled weather system 27 00:01:45.690 --> 00:01:49.680 what can we expect as Hurricane Joaquin moves northward? 28 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:53.690 The ground along much of the East Coast is already fairly saturated from a number of frontal systems 29 00:01:53.710 --> 00:01:57.710 that we've had over the last week or so. The GPM constellation 30 00:01:57.730 --> 00:02:01.910 of satellites is able to give us measurements of rainfall accumulation 31 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:05.970 not only over land, but over the ocean and you can you see 32 00:02:05.990 --> 00:02:09.980 in this animation how you've got this heavy rainfall along the East Coast as well as 33 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.980 heavy rainfall associated with Joaquin near the Bahamas. 34 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.000 Now Joaquin is expected to move northward and predominantly stay off shore 35 00:02:18.020 --> 00:02:22.020 so we're hoping that the U.S. will be relatively spared from 36 00:02:22.040 --> 00:02:26.030 this system. But information from GPM can help us really 37 00:02:26.050 --> 00:02:30.050 learn a lot about how hurricanes form and intensify. 38 00:02:30.070 --> 00:02:34.060 That's really one of the key goals of NASA is to better understand 39 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:38.070 basic dynamics of these types of storms. 40 00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:42.080 [off camera] How will forecasters and emergency managers use this information?" 41 00:02:42.100 --> 00:02:46.090 Forecasters and emergency managers can make use of this information that's available 42 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:50.110 within six hours or so of the observation time. 43 00:02:50.130 --> 00:02:54.290 With these global views of precipitation we can see 44 00:02:54.310 --> 00:02:58.310 storms across the globe. But in the case of Joaquin here we're able to 45 00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:02.310 zoom in on the U.S. region and the see 46 00:03:02.330 --> 00:03:06.320 the frontal systems over the East Coast, Joaquin around the Bahamas, and they can 47 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:10.330 extract that information and how it's changing to assess the impacts of the storms 48 00:03:10.350 --> 00:03:14.340 and the potential for flooding. [off camera] Where can we learn more? 49 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:18.350 You can learn more about GPM from www.nasa.gov/gpm 50 00:03:18.370 --> 00:03:22.969 and on Twitter at NASA underscore rain.