Hurricane Isabel

Hurricane Isabel

The MODIS instrument onboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this bird’s-eye view of Hurricane Isabel churning away in the tropical Atlantic ocean. At the time this image was taken, Isabel had become the second major hurricane of the season (Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. Isabel was located approximately 1265 miles east of the Leeward Islands and was moving towards the west-northwest at 14 mph.

Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.