Hurricane Ana Viewed by NASA's ISS-RapidScat
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NASA's ISS-RapidScat ocean wind scatterometer viewed Hurricane Ana as it approached Hawaii. From Oct. 13 to Oct. 19, 2014, RapidScat, recently installed on the International Space Station, observed Ana seven times. Because RapidScat has not yet been fully calibrated and its data have not yet been adjusted to account for rain, the peak winds in the storm as shown here are likely inaccurate, and bands of heavy rain may erroneously appear as high wind speeds. Despite the yet-to-be-completed calibration and rain flagging, the RapidScat data nonetheless provide useful information regarding the structure and movement of this and other tropical cyclones. Additionally, these images exemplify the spatial and time coverage that will be available for future storms from RapidScat.