Category: News of the Jason-2 mission

Jason-2 made some measurements showing among other things the Hurricane Gustav wind speed.

Hurricane Gustav went over Haïti, Jamaica and Cuba during the last week, causing great damages, before crossing the Gulf of Mexico and landing in Louisiana, with a little less strength. Jason-2, as its predessors is able to measure some of the relevant parameters, and will be used to help forecasts of such phenomena.

<link fileadmin images news mod_actus gustav_j2_vent_alt.png download>

Jason-2 wind speed. Track 26, at about 15h on August 31 showed well the hurricane (red dot)

<link fileadmin images news mod_actus gustav_c006_026_wind.png>

Wind speed along the Jason-2 track #26. Even though the measurements are a bit off the hurricane's eye, the winds went up to 28 m/s (about 100 km/h). Measured <link fileadmin images news mod_actus gustav_c006_026_swh.png>significant wave heights are also available.

<link fileadmin images news mod_actus gustav_sla_20080826.png>

Huricane Gustav intensity overlayed on a Sea level anomaly map. The fact it went over a cold eddy before reaching Louisiana might have played a role in its lower intensity (Credits CLS/Cnes, Ssalto/Duacs merged data including Jason-2).