NASA's and NOAA's satellites and observatories help in weather monitoring on Earth. Given the perspective from outer space, NASA is capable of capturing what weather disturbances look like from space.
Currently, hurricane Matthew is wrecking havoc on Earth, and NASA and its affiliates were able to film what it looks like. NASA's satellites help to track the route of hurricane Matthew.
Cameras outside the International Space Station (ISS) captured the chilling video last Oct. 3. ISS flew 250 miles above the Earth and directly above the storm. Based on the reading, the wind reached up to 140 miles per hour and was identified as a category 4 hurricane. Currently, Matthew is heading towards the Bahamas and is also threatening to hit the U.S. east coast.
"Hurricane Matthew made landfall in western Haiti during the morning hours of Oct. 4, and a NASA animation of NOAA's GOES-East satellite covered the monster storm," a NASA official said in a press release.
A continuous imagery of the Atlantic Ocean and East U.S. is provided by NOAA's GOES-East satellite. This satellite is also closely monitoring Matthew. At night, the satellite uses infrared to track the storm's movements. After the data were captured, scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland combines them into animations.
The animation, a combination of camera footage and infrared imaging showed how intense a Category 4 hurricane is. Due to successful path prediction, the areas where Matthew will hit are already preparing for the category 4 hurricane.
Haiti was severely devastated by Matthew. It has already killed 11 people across the Caribbean, five of them from Haiti. The storm hit Haiti on Tuesday with its 175-miles-per-hour winds that caused "catastrophic" consequences. "Haiti is facing the largest humanitarian event witnessed since the earthquake six years ago," Mourad Wahba, UN Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Haiti said in an interview.
Matthew will pound on the Bahamas by Wednesday and Thursday, tumultuous rains and storm surge warnings have been issued, according to a report by NBC.