3D Animation of Earth and Space Science Concepts

Hurricane Bonnie Flyby

Hurricane Bonnie hit the eastern US coast on August 26-27, 1998, ultimately causing three deaths and 360 million dollars in property and crop damage. At landfall, Bonnie was rated as a category two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, meaning wind speeds of 110 mph and storm surges of six to eight feet. Shown below is an animation depicting the August 26-27th landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina.

The animation was developed using visible-light and infrared data from GOES 8 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). The data was processed by Digital Radiance using McIDAS to convert from the GOES satellite projection to an equirectangular geographic projection and then further processed by custom Digital Radiance software to derive the scaled 3D cloud heights.

Click to see other 3D animations we've developed for the NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center's Science Directorate.