Fresh on the heels of a series of crippling floods that began in December 2010, and a tiny tropical cyclone, Anthony, this past weekend, the northeastern Australian state of Queensland is now stimulating for what could become one of the largest tropical cyclones the state has ever seen. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The AIRS data create an exact 3-D map of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and clouds, data that are functional to forecasters. The image shows the temperature of Yasi's cloud tops or the surface of Earth in cloud-free regions.
The coldest cloud-top temperatures appear in purple, in lieu of soaring cold clouds and heavy precipitation. The infrared signal of AIRS does not pierce through clouds. Where there are no clouds, AIRS reads the infrared signal from the surface of the sea waters, enlightening warmer temperatures in orange and red.
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