Florida News

Let's talk about the weather (and space, of course)

Central Florida Public Media | By Brendan Byrne

Published October 11, 2022 at 11:59 PM CDT

NASA astronaut Bob Hines captured this image of Hurricane Ian from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA / Bob Hines

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People in the path of Hurricane Ian are still dealing with its aftermath.

Before and during the storm, residents rely on forecasts from meteorologists to track the storm and plan to prepare. Many of the tools these forecasters use come from space.

We’ll chat with meteorology professor Rob Eicher about the space-based tools forecasters use to predict the severity and path of storms like Ian.

Then, weather — it’s not just an Earthly phenomenon. We’ll speak with NOAA’s Rob Steenburgh about forecasting space weather — and why forecasting space storms is important to us here on Earth.

Additional Links

Here’s the image from Landsat 8, described by Eicher. Be sure to click on the image for the full resolution. To compare, here’s images from GOES-East, which is operating from a much higher orbit.