Arthur is the first named storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season

Jul 9, 2014 22:57 GMT  ·  By

This past July 8, NASA released a video detailing the anatomy of Hurricane Arthur as documented with the help of a recently launched satellite officially known as the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory.

The video, available below, comprises images that said satellite obtained on July 3, when it flew over Hurricane Arthur a total of five times and closely observed rain and ice fall patterns.

As detailed on NASA's official website, the storm was asymmetrical and sported spiral arms on its eastern side at the time the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory observed it.

Researchers say that, with the help of data provided by this satellite, they will be able to gain a better understanding of how hurricanes form and evolve. Consequently, they will be able to make more accurate weather predictions.

“Being able to see the structures more clearly may allow for better determination of the structure of the eye wall and rainbands, thereby providing clues about the likelihood of a storm intensifying or weakening,” says researcher Scott Braun.

“The whole idea here is to use these tools to understand the initial genesis of the tropical cyclone, then to monitor its location, eye structure and intensity as it evolves, and to use that along with our numerical model forecast to generate a five- to seven-day forecast every six hours,” adds Jeff Hawkins.

For those unaware, Arthur is the first named storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season. It was born as a tropical depression on June 30, and developed into a Category 2 hurricane on July 4.