A joint European-Japanese mission captures a space view of the internal structure of a cloud.
A never-seen-before space image of the interior structure of a storm cloud has been released by the European and Japanese space agencies.The data reveals the density of ice, snow, and rain in the cloud, as well as the speed with which these particles are falling to Earth.
"I am absolutely thrilled to see the first radar images from Earthcare - for the first time ever we can measure the fall speeds of ice crystals, raindrops and snowflakes around the whole globe, not just at a handful of ground-based radar stations," said Dr Robin Hogan, a mission scientist from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts .
Velocity measurements show the ice crystals and snowflakes are either suspended high up or are falling slowly. There is a clear boundary at an altitude of about 5km where the ice and snow melts, to form water droplets that then fall as rain.
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