Latest Satellite Images/Videos as Hurricane Irene Bears Down on US East Coast

By Nancy Atkinson - August 26, 2011 at 7:15 PM UTC | Planetary Science
Irene_goes_20112361.jpg

What a view: Here's a video of Hurricane Irene's path, starting on August 24 up until 18:40 UTC on August 26, 2011, as seen by a GOES satellite. Even though Hurricane Irene is continuing to slowly weaken as it pushes closer to the Carolina coast, this massive storm could affect a huge area of the Eastern US seaboard, and tropical storm force winds and squalls are buffeting the coast. Irene will impact the entire Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Coast, including Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, Ct. and Boston this weekend.

This hurricane spans nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).

Below is a video taken from the International Space Station late yesterday afternoon. Includes astronaut commentary on the view of this "huge, scary storm" from 370 km (230 miles) up:

Or click on this link to see the

latest video of Hurricane Irene from GOES and Goddard Space Flight Center

Cameras mounted on the International Space Station captured this video. Forecasters are predicting landfall on the outer banks of North Carolina Saturday before tracking up the mid-Atlantic states and a possible path over the metropolitan New York area and New England late this weekend.

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Hot off the wires is this satellite image of Hurricane Irene taken less than an hour ago (as of this writing) by one of the GOES satellites for NOAA.

Here's the latest from

WeatherBug:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Imagery of Hurrican Irene from WeatherBug.com"]

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And here's the latest from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on August 25:

[caption id="attachment_88470" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Hurricane Irene as seen by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on August 25. Credit: NASA"]

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See more up-to-date satellite images from NOAA's cadre of Earth-observing satellites

at this link.

Sources:

NASA Earth Observatory,

WeatherBug

, NOAA,

Goddard Space Flight Center

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com