Hurricane Isabel WS

ERS-2 WS Orbit 43967

17 September 2003

Description:

This wind field map of Hurricane Isabel was generated from data acquired by the wind scatterometer instrument onboard ERS-2, at 15.23 UTC on 17 September 2003.

Each 'flag' on the wind field indicates the direction and force of the wind. The 'tail' on each flag points away from the wind source, the 'head' toward wind direction, in this case indicating a counter-clockwise or northwest-to-southeast rotation of the eye of the hurricane. In addition, the number of 'legs' or lines on the 'tail' indicate the wind's force: the more legs, the stronger the wind.

Six legs would indicate more than 32 knots of wind speed. At the time of acquisition, hurricane Isabel was rated as a Category 2 hurricane, and had decreased in force from a Category 4.

According to NOAA's National Hurricane Center Archives , on Sunday 14 September, Isabel's hurricane force wind peaked at an estimated 170 knots, just below a Category 5 hurricane. Sustained winds were estimated at 260 kilometers per hour. At a distance of 140 kilometers from the eye, wind speeds were around 119 km per hour.

Technical Information:

• Instrument: Wind Scatterometer (WS)
• Date of Acquisition: 17 September 2003 15.23 UTC
• Orbit number: 43967
• Orbit direction: Descending
• Instrument features: C-band acquisition
• Coordinates:

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Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry