Figure 1
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This image shows Hurricane Lane as observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. Purple shows very cold clouds high in the atmosphere above the center of the hurricane, blue and green show the warmer temperatures of lower clouds surrounding the storm center; and orange and red areas have almost no clouds. No eye is seen in this image, which means it was either too small for AIRS to detect or it was covered by high, cold clouds.

Figure 1 was observed on Aug. 22, 2018. Purple shows very cold clouds high in the atmosphere above the center of the hurricane, blue and green show the warmer temperatures of lower clouds surrounding the storm center; and orange and red areas have almost no clouds. The eye of the storm is clearly visible.

About AIRS
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, AMSU, senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations all the way down to Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. Launched into Earth orbit in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments fly onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about AIRS can be found at https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov.