The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 13
(GOES-13) captured this natural-color image of Hurricane Sandy
at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (17:45 Universal Time) on
October 28, 2012. Note how a line of clouds from a continental
weather system runs south to north along the Appalachian
Mountains, approaching from the west to meet the offshore storm.
Cameras on another geostationary satellite (GOES-14) collected
“super rapid scan” images—one every minute from 7:15 a.m. until
6:26 p.m. EDT—which were compiled into a time-lapse video
available on YouTube. In the animation, light from the changing
angles of the Sun reveal the structure of the clouds and the
details of the storm’s motion from dawn to dusk. At 2 p.m. EDT,
shortly after the still image above was acquired, the U.S.
National Hurricane Center reported that Sandy was located at
32.8° North and 71.9° West, about 575 miles (930 kilometers)
south of New York City. Maximum sustained winds were observed at
75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, an