Hurricane Harvey winds from NASA SMAP

Date Added: 
Friday, August 25, 2017

 

An early image of Hurricane Harvey surface winds as seen by the NASA SMAP radiometer on August 24, 2017 at 12:30 UTC, before they reached hurricane-force level.  Maximum winds 51 kn (26 m/s). From these satellite data, the 34kn and 50kn radii estimates (in nautical miles) at 12:30 UTC were 

R34NE      80
R34SE      40
R34SW     38
R34NW     52

R50NE       7
R50SE       6
R50SW      6
R50NW      7

 

Note that the radii were calculated by visually locating the center of the storm, which was not clearly visible at that time. These estimates have an uncertainty of about 10%. The estimated location of the center of the storm in this image is 266.875E, 23.875N. 

The wind field here and the estimates of the radii are provided for verification purpose. 

SMAP did not have a full view of the storm after it reached hurricane-force level. A partial view of the SE quadrant on Aug 26 0UTC (not shown), just before landfall, observed maximum winds of  48 m/s (94 kn). The  NE quadrant was too close to land to be measured by SMAP.