Satellites are extremely valuable especially when it comes to predict the path of a storm like Hurricane Ike. Envisat is an ESA satellite that is tracking the storm.

Earth observation satellites are crucial in knowing the strength and path of hurricanes. They permit scientists to emit timely warning to the regions where it is heading. Hurricane Ike is to make landfall on the Texas coast by September 13.

Envisat has a unique capability that allows simultaneous viewing of the top and bottom of a hurricane. The satellite can see through heavy clouds and precipitation and can provide high-resolution imagery and can measure wind and wave speeds as well as currents over a 400-km-wide region.

Dr. Bertrand Chapron from the French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea and Dr. Fabrice Collard of France’s CLS radar application division in Brest, have developed sets of algorithms that allow data from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument aboard Envisat to be processed in Near-Real Time (NRT) and to produce state-of-the-art ocean parameters.

“The knowledge of hurricane eye details, the radius of very high winds, details on the swell fields, and the new information on atmosphere feedback to ocean surface velocity will certainly help coupled ocean-atmosphere models to better predict hurricane track and intensity,” Dr Chapron said.

For Hurricane Ike, wind speeds around the hurricane’s eye can exceed 40m per second. Around the eye of the storm, the sea surface velocities also capture the circular direction of the prevailing wind and waves.

Scientists say that in the near future another improved satellite to follow the Envisat will be launch. It was named Sentinel-1 and it will have capability with dual polarization and higher imaging resolution.

Source: ESA