image: On Aug. 10 at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 UTC) NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured this visible image of the remnants of Hurricane Franklin over Mexico. view more
Credit: NOAA/NASA Rapid Response Team
NASA's GPM, Aqua and Suomi NPP satellites provided three different views of the now fizzled and former Hurricane Franklin.
Franklin made landfall on the coast of eastern Mexico early on August 10 as a category 1 hurricane with winds of over 86 mph (75 knots). The National Hurricane Center issued their final advisory on former Hurricane Franklin on Thursday, August 10 at 11 a.m. EDT as Franklin dissipated 20 miles north-northwest from Mexico City, Mexico.
Before Franklin moved into the Eastern Pacific on August 11, NASA satellites provided different views of what was happening within the storm.
NASA Looks at Franklin's Rainfall
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core observatory satellite saw tropical storm Franklin with winds of about 69 mph (60 knots) as it was intensifying in the Bay Of Campeche on August 9, 2017 at 12:20 p.m. EDT 1620 UTC). Heavy rainfall in Franklin was uncovered by GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments. GPM's GMI data showed that rain was falling at a rate of over 3.1 inches (79 mm) per hour in powerful storms southeast of Franklin's center of circulation. DPR data revealed that intense feeder bands of thunderstorms on the western side of the tropical storm were dropping rain at a rate of greater than 2.8 inches (71 mm) per hour.
At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland a 3-D cross section view was developed using GPM's radar (DPR Ku Band). GPM's DPR scans of the feeder bands on the western side of tropical storm Franklin revealed that powerful storms there were reaching altitudes above 9.5 miles (15.4 km).
NASA Looks at Franklin in Infrared Light
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed Franklin's remnants in infrared light on Aug. 10 at 1935 UTC (3:35 p.m. EDT). By that time, Franklin had already dissipated into a remnant low pressure area containing showers and thunderstorms.
Some of the coldest cloud top temperatures exceeded minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) in an area that stretched from Mexico's east coast to Mexico's west coast. Storms with temperatures that cold are high in the troposphere and NASA research has shown they have the ability to generate heavy rain.
NASA Looks at Franklin in Visible Light
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite took a visible light picture of Franklin's remnant clouds after NASA's Aqua satellite had passed overhead. On Aug. 10 at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 UTC) the VIIRS image showed the remnant clouds stretching from the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas to the southwestern state of Oaxaca and into the Gulf of Tehunatepec, Eastern Pacific Ocean.
At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Friday, August 11 animated infrared satellite imagery indicated the remnants of Franklin were moving off the Mexican coast and into the Eastern Pacific Ocean between Acapulco and Manzanillo.
###