View from space: Cyclone Jasmine in 3-D

Satellite data was used to create this 3-D animation of Cyclone Jasmine moving through the South Pacific Ocean.

Here’s a 3-D animation of Cyclone Jasmine over the South Pacific Ocean, created using data from NASA’s TRMM satellite.

Jasmine was classified as a powerful Category 4 storm with wind speeds of about 132 miles per hour at its peak intensity. Jasmine had started to weaken when the TRMM satellite traveled directly above the tropical cyclone in the South Pacific Ocean.

The 3-D cutaway image revealed the funnel shaped surface of Jasmine’s eye. TRMM data also showed that Jasmine’s tallest storms then reached to heights of about 11.5 km (~7.1 miles). Intense thunderstorms in bands wrapping around Jasmine’s large circular eye were dropping rain at a rate of about two inches per hour.

Jasmine is a small cyclone, only about 90 nautical miles (103.6 miles/166.7 km)in diameter, and the eye is about 20 nautical miles (23.2 miles/37 km) wide. Jasmine is expected to move over cooler waters and encounter drier air, two factors that will further weaken the storm.