Hurricane Hugo

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View of Hurricane Hugo on 21 September 1989 at 1900 UTC by GOES-7 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites). At that time, Hugo was approaching Charleston, South Carolina. There was also a less intense tropical cyclone (Iris) in the middle of the Atlantic, and another off the West coast of Mexico. Also note the large extratropical cyclone in the South Pacific.

The red, green and blue display channels correspond to the visible, 11 micron and 6.7 micron instrument channels, respectively. High, cold clouds appear dark in the infrared channels (11 and 6.7 microns) but clearly show up in the visible (red) channel.

See also our perspective view of Hugo.

Image produced by F. Hasler, K. Palaniappan, M. Manyin, and H. Pierce (NASA/Goddard).