Florida hurricane season: Science behind satellite images of tropical storm sizes
To us here on Earth, most of us never give a second thought to satellites, which may appear like small shining stars among many in the night sky – if they appear at all.
But as hurricane season approaches in Florida, satellites will get a detailed view of our planet from far away. From all the way up in orbit, the spacecrafts provide a critical tool for scientists and other officials to monitor the development of tropical storms and keep the public informed about incoming danger.
While hurricane season doesn't begin until June 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has already started its daily tropical outlooks – highlighting areas showing potential for tropical development within about a week's time. That means its National Hurricane Center will turn to its fleet of orbital satellites for data, which can keep an eye on tropical storms much more effectively than land-based observations alone.
First introduced in 1975, geostationary satellites have become a standard instrument for weather forecasting, especially during the Atlantic hurricane season, win runs June 1 to Nov. 30 every year. Technology has greatly improved in the decades since, enabling the satellites to relay data faster back to Earth while transmitting better quality images and storm detection details.
Geostationary satellites orbit Earth at a speed allowing them to stay fixed over the same area of the planet so they can continuously monitor a tropical storm and its development.
NOAA is responsible for the GOES satellites that are constantly monitoring Earth for weather threats.
The latest among them, the GOES-U satellite, launched in June 2024 from Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The GOES-U satellite – Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U – is designed to not only enable earlier storm detection, but also give forecasters more time to warn the public.
Images from the GOES satellites reach NOAA at about five-minute intervals. But the next generation of satellites the agency is planning − GeoXO − will see the forecasting capabilities improve even further.
The GOES-U satellite was due to become operational in spring 2025 after undergoing a test period in fall 2024. The last in NOAA's current series of satellites known as GOES-R − named after the first satellite of the series − the satellite is improved over previous iterations to detect not only a weather system's structure but its exact location.
Those capabilities should prove crucial during hurricane season, when GOES-U and other satellites will play a critical role in Florida's early warning system, Michael Brennan, director of the NOAA National Hurricane Center in Miami, previously told FLORIDA TODAY, a USA TODAY Network newspaper.
"Satellite imagery is our first line of defense against hurricanes," Brennan said. "It's how we monitor systems that develop, it's how we estimate how strong they are before we can fly an aircraft into them."
It's not just satellites that can monitor hurricanes from high in the sky.
NASA's International Space Station, which orbits Earth from around 250 miles high, also routinely captures imagery of tropical storms and hurricanes that provide a striking bird's-eye view.
For instance, as Hurricane Milton moved in on Florida in October 2024, the U.S space agency released photos and a timelapse video showing the eye of the storm as it churned and swirled its way toward the coast.
External cameras on the International Space Station first captured a glimpse of the gathering tempest Oct. 7 while orbiting above Florida. At the time, the Category 5 storm was packing winds of 175 mph as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico, later renamed by the U.S. government as the Gulf of America.
Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: What does a hurricane look like from space? Satellites keep an eye
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