The goal of the ongoing CyMISS (tropical Cyclone intensity Measurements from the ISS) project is to acquire image sequences of intense tropical cyclones (TCs), such as hurricanes, to support the development of an improved remote sensing method to determine more accurately the strength of these destructive storms using stereoscopy. Funded by CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) which manages the ISS US National Laboratory for NASA, this project has amassed a large collection of storm images during the last four years. While a number of processed images have been released to the public over the years through various online and print outlets, the CyMISS team at Visidyne (the prime contractor of the project) wanted to share some of the best images we have been creating.
This is one of the original color photographs (ISS048-E-22717) of Super Typhoon Nepartak taken by the crew of the ISS at 05:21:44 GMT on July 7, 2016 in support of CyMISS. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/JSC)
July’s Image of the Month is a view of Super Typhoon Nepartak created using a sequence of 299 photographs (like the original shown above) taken by the crew of the ISS on July 7, 2016 as the storm was weakening and about 16 hours from making landfall over Taiwan. When the five-minute photography session started at 05:19:00 GMT, Nepartak was located at about 21.6° north, 123.5° east and was still rated as a Category 5 “Super Typhoon” on the Saffir-Simpson scale. A processed B&W overhead view of Nepartak’s 43-kilometer wide eye (taken in red light to reduce atmospheric scattering and improve the visibility of details) is shown below when the surface winds were estimated to be about 265 kph (165 mph). Only a few hours after this image was taken, the eye began to breakup and fill with clouds as the storm continued to weaken due to interactions with land.
This is a B&W closeup view of the eye of Super Typhoon Nepartak taken in red light to maximize the visibility of details in the scene. The original image, ISS048-E-22717, has been processed to approximate an overhead view of the eye and covers an area of 150 by 100 kilometers. Click on the image to view the full size version at a scale of 100 meters/pixel. (A.J.LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA)
In order to create this Image of the Month, the individual photographs from the original 299-image sequence were remapped to approximate an overhead view before they were stitched together into a synoptic color mosaic covering an area of 2,100 by 900 kilometers. While the island nation of Taiwan was just being covered by the outer bands of this storm, the coast of China is visible in the left part of this mosaic. A high resolution version of this synoptic mosaic with an image scale of 500 meters/pixel can be viewed by clicking on the image below.
This mosaic shows Super Typhoon Nepartak as viewed from the ISS on July 7, 2016. It was created by remapping the original 299 photographs taken by the crew of the ISS to approximate an overhead view before stitching them together and covers an area of 2,100 by 900 kilometers. Click on the image to view a high resolution version with a scale of 500 meters/pixel. (A.J.LePage/Visidyne/JSC-NASA
The CyMISS team at Visidyne would like to thank the crew of the ISS as well as the staff at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center for their ongoing efforts. The original images are courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The work presented here is supported in part under CASIS Grant GA-2018-272.
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See earlier articles on the CyMISS program here.