NASA's CloudSat satellite flew over Hurricane Michael on October 9, 2018 at 3:15 p.m. EDT (1915 UTC) as the storm was intensifying and moving northwest towards the Florida panhandle in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Michael contained estimated sustained winds of 105 knots (120 mph) making the storm a Category 3 (major hurricane).
<p>CloudSat passed over the eastern portion of the storm through an area of moderate to heavy precipitation. Large amounts of liquid and ice water (denoted by the red and pink colors) are detected beneath the cold cloud tops. The lack of signal (attenuation) beneath the freezing layer (around 5 km in height) can be seen in the heavier areas of precipitation as CloudSat’s cloud profiling radar (CPR) signal dampens when particles are larger than 3 mm in size.  Cloud top height average between 13-15 km with a overshooting cloud top in the northern part of the overpass. Lower values of reflectivity (areas of green and blue) denote smaller ice and water particle sizes typically located at top of the system (in the anvil area).
</p><p>This time lapsed animation combines GOES-16 imagery and the CloudSat overpass. 
</p><p>Credit: NASA/GOES/CloudSat
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<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/44530240624/">NASA's CloudSat Examines Water and Ice in Hurricane Michael - Flickr</a>