roskos@IDA.ORG (Eric Roskos) (09/23/89)
The following is the updated list of all the Hurricane Hugo GIF pictures. Most of these are temporarily available on WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL for a short time longer, but have to be deleted because they are taking over 4MB of disk space. They are in PD3:<MISC.GIF>. All times in the table below are EDT (E+1). I've tried to give a fairly critical description of the images so that if you are only interested in a few of the pictures that look good, you can tell which to skip and which to choose. But I've included all of them even if the signal was not too good, for the people interested in tracking the hurricane based on the satellite pictures, or similar observations. -- Eric Roskos roskos@IDA.ORG (Please don't FTP to IDA.ORG trying to access these pictures. We don't have FTP service available here, so they aren't archived here.) HUGO1.GIF 9/17 7:15AM GOES IR Has some noise over the hurricane image due to HF propagation conditions. HF conditions are currently only moderately good here for receiving the GOES pictures, so this tends to be a problem in a number of them (conditions were much better for the Hurricane Gabrielle pictures). HUGO2.GIF 9/17 8:20AM Meteor 3-2 This is a picture from the Soviet Meteor satellite, before I modified my receiver to have a wider bandwidth. You may want to skip this one unless you are really interested in having all of them. HUGO3.GIF 9/17 11:00AM Meteor 2-16 This and subsequen Meteor pictures were recorded after I modified my receiver to have a 25 KHz bandwidth, so the picture quality is better. (I'm still looking for a way to get a wider bandwidth, though.) HUGO4.GIF 9/17 1:47PM NOAA 11 An enlargement of the hurricane as it approaches Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic; the latter is visible in the picture. At this time the satellite was passing over the hurricane as it came over the horizon at my location, so the image emerges out of the background noise as the signal is acquired. HUGO5.GIF 9/17 1:47PM NOAA 11 An unzoomed image of the above; I was testing the new IF filter in the radio at this time, so the quality of the picture varies. You may want to skip this one too. HUGO6.GIF 9/17 7:15PM GOES IR This is a fairly good GOES Infrared picture of the hurricane as it began to reach Puerto Rico. HUGO7.GIF 9/17 7:15PM GOES IR An enlargement of HUGO6.GIF. HUGO8.GIF 9/18 8:00AM Meteor 3-2 Moderate picture of the hurricane from the Soviet satellite Monday morning. HUGO9.GIF 9/18 7:00PM GOES IR Also moderate quality due to HF conditions. At this point the hurricane had "wobbled around" Puerto Rico and is slightly to the north of it. HUGO10.GIF 9/18 7:00PM GOES IR An enlargement of HUGO9.GIF. HUGO11.GIF 9/19 7:00AM GOES IR This picture is only of interest if you want to see the geographic location of the hurricane, since the HF conditions were even worse than usual. You probably should skip this one unless you want to see the location of the hurricane as shown in HUGO13 and 14. HUGO12.GIF 9/19 7:00AM GOES IR Enlargement of HUGO11. See comments above. HUGO13.GIF 9/19 7:40AM Meteor 3-2 The best picture thus far of the hurricane. It is illuminated obliquely by the recently-risen sun to the East, so some shadow detail is visible, including the small "eye" feature. Since the hurricane had moved North some by this time, and since Meteor 3-2 gives a strong signal and is higher than the NOAA and Meteor 2 satellites, the quality of the signal was better than in previous pictures. Note the length of the shadows to the left of some of the isolated clouds to the left of the hurricane, and the sea-glint from the sun reflecting off the ocean to the right. HUGO14.GIF 9/19 7:40AM Meteor 3-2 An enlargement of HUGO13.GIF. If you only want to get one picture from the Hugo images thus far, this is the best one. The very delicate fringe of clouds to the South of the hurricane is clearly visible, as well as the raised center and very small eye. HUGO15.GIF 9/19 7:00PM GOES IR HF propagation conditions were very good for most of this image (they steadily improved throughout the image), but the subcarrier seemed to be modulated by a fairly high-frequency (AF-range) signal at the transmitter, with the result that the image is greyish and mottled. It gives a good view of the position of the hurricane a few hours ago this evening, as it heads towards the US, but the quality is not very good due to the above problem. Iris is also now clearly visible as distinct from Hugo (though it is also visible in some of the earlier images), following the path Hugo took a few days ago. HUGO16.GIF 9/20 7:20AM Meteor 3-2 This is a very clear picture of the hurricane, although it is partly off the left (West) edge of the image. Vertical doubling of scan lines was used in this picture to make the aspect ratio closer to square, since the Soviet satellites tend to stretch the image horizontally. Most of the other Meteor pictures are not displayed with doubling of scan lines, so you can see more of the image on the screen, but it looks slightly "squashed" along the vertical axis. HUGO17.GIF 7/20 7:20AM Meteor 3-2 An enlargement of the original, un-doubled image used to produce HUGO16.GIF. This is a very high-quality image of the hurricane. HUGO18.GIF 9/20 8:30AM NOAA 10 Picture from the US TIROS-N NOAA 10 satellite, showing the entire East coast of the US, with the hurricane off the coast of Florida. This is an excellent-quality image. HUGO19.GIF 9/20 8:30AM NOAA 10 Enlargement of the hurricane from HUGO18.GIF. HUGO20.GIF 9/20 7:00PM GOES IR Good infrared image, with the hurricane halfway between Puerto Rico and the US. When looking at the GOES IR pictures, bear in mind that the coldest (usually the highest) clouds appear whitest in the image. You can also sometimes tell very general relative temperatures of areas of sea and land, as well. HUGO21.GIF 9/20 7:00PM GOES IR Enlargement of HUGO20.GIF. HUGO22.GIF 9/21 7:05AM Meteor 3-2 The hurricane is not visible in this picture; it is to the West of the satellite, just out of range. The trail of clouds left behind by the passing hurricane is visible, however. HUGO23.GIF 9/21 8:05AM NOAA 10 The eye is clearly visible for the first time in this image. The hurricane is beginning to approach the coast of the US. HUGO24.GIF 9/21 8:05AM NOAA 10 An enlargement of HUGO23.GIF. HUGO25.GIF 9/21 2:50PM NOAA 10 An early afternoon image of the hurricane; the sun is directly overhead, so not much shadow detail is visible. There are also some noise bars over the hurricane image because of the satellite passing between the antenna and the roof of a building, so this picture is of limited quality. However, it is possible to see that the rain bands of the hurricane have reached land at this time. HUGO26.GIF 9/21 2:50PM NOAA 10 Enlargement of HUGO25.GIF. HUGO27.GIF 9/21 7:01PM GOES IR Excellent infrared image; the hurricane is off the coast of South Carolina, approaching land. The outer edges of the hurricane have crossed inland and are causing rain throughout the coastal areas. HUGO28.GIF 9/21 7:01PM GOES IR Enlargement of HUGO27.GIF. HUGO29.GIF 9/22 1:01AM GOES IR About an hour after the hurricane reached Charleston, SC. The eye of the hurricane is visible, having already moved a good distance inland. The picture has noise in it due to the limited propagation conditions at this time of night, but the picture is of historical interest. The roof of the National Weather Service headquarters in Charleston was blown off by the portion of the hurricane that is over Charleston in this image. HUGO30.GIF 9/22 1:01AM GOES IR Enlargement of HUGO29.GIF. HUGO31.GIF 9/22 2:43PM NOAA 11 Remnants of Tropical Storm Hugo are now far inland; the sky had begun to clear at the antenna site, in fact, by this time. (Note that this file is chronologically out of sequence; it should go where the missing HUGO34.GIF file is, after the 9/22 8:40AM images.) HUGO32.GIF 9/22 8:40AM Meteor 3-2 An excellent picture of the hurricane inland over Hickory, NC the morning (about 8 hours) after it reached land. The storm is still fairly dense and well-organized, with a recognizable center. Wind speeds were reported at around 75 mi/hr at this time in Hickory. HUGO33.GIF 9/22 8:40AM Meteor 3-2 Same image as HUGO32.GIF, but shifted further Northward to show structure of clouds in front of advancing hurricane. HUGO34.GIF (No file with this name exists.) HUGO35.GIF 9/23 8:30AM Meteor 3-2 About 32 hours after the hurricane reached land, some remnants of it are still visible far to the North, over the northeastern United States and Newfoundland. The principal weather feature visible in this picture, however, is the very highly visible cold front moving to the Southeast over the Appalachian mountains. Compare this picture with HUGO36.GIF to identify the location of various objects in the picture; HUGO36.GIF was received from the US NOAA 10 satellite, which resolves the boundary between land and water better, so it is possible to see the continent outline and the great lakes better in that image, although the Soviet Meteor 3-2 gives a larger and higher-contrast image, so some better cloud detail is visible in HUGO35.GIF. HUGO36.GIF 9/23 9:00AM NOAA 10 This picture was recorded about 1/2 hour after HUGO35.GIF, from the US NOAA-10 (TIROS-N) spacecraft. The entire East Coast of the US is clearly visible. This image is centered somewhat to the South of HUGO35.GIF, since Meteor 3-2 is higher and seems to have a stronger transmitter, and thus continued to be received until it reached the coast of Greenland. The Channel 3 Infrared image from NOAA 10 is in the right half of the picture. -- Eric Roskos (roskos@CS.IDA.ORG or Roskos@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL)