Aug. 27, 2011, First Update

TRMM Satellite Shows What's Happening Under the Hood of Hurricane Irene's Clouds

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite radar saw the inner core of Hurricane Irene for a fourth time, on Friday afternoon, August 25. On The TRMM radar showed that the southern half of the eyewall was gone. Some strong precipitation did still exist in the remaining eyewall to the north of the eye.

The lack of a compact, symmetric eyewall, suggests that there is relatively little chance of intensification at the time of the satellite overflight. TRMM showed that the highest towering thunderstorms were about 7.5-miles high (12 kilometers).