NASA has broadcast a video showing Hurricane Helene as seen from the International Space Station.
The Space Station orbits 400km (250 miles) above Earth and gives astronauts and scientists a vantage point from which to study natural phenomena on our planet.
The ISS passed over Hurricane Helene at 12:50 EDT (16:50 UTC) on 26 September 2024 as the hurricane approached the coast of Florida.
The video was broadcast via NASA TV and NASA’s YouTube Channel.
Hurricane Helene is described by meteorologists as ‘unsurvivable’, being a category 4 storm with wind speeds of up to 140 mph (225 km/h) expected.
NASA says sea surface temperature and ocean heat content data over the past week “showed a tongue of unusually warm water extending north from the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico toward the Florida Panhandle.”
This, says NASA, can make storms more dangerous as they “provide a store of energy for passing hurricanes to draw from as they approach land.”
Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explains: “These warm core eddies are a fairly persistent feature in the gulf and represent a deep layer of warm water that is much less likely to be disrupted by strong surface forcing by the hurricane winds.”
Forecasters warned that storm surges of 10 to 20 feet could hit some areas, that strong winds and heavy rainfall could affect regions in northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, after Hurricane Helene made landfall.
Find out more about Hurricane Helene via the NASA Earth Observatory website.