This GOES-13 satellite image was captured on from March 2 at 1740 UTC (12:40 p.m. EST) and shows the clouds associated with the powerful low pressure area and trailing cold front that generated several tornadoes during the morning hours on March 2. (Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project)

The severe weather ravaging the central and eastern U.S. has been captured by a weather satellite.

NASA has created an animation of data from NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite that shows the frontal system pushing east as it generated severe weather in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

At least 12 tornadoes were reported in three states before mid-day on March 2.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-13) captures visible and infrared images of weather over the eastern U.S. every 15 minutes.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland compiles the images into animations.

The GOES visible and infrared data is compiled and then overlayed on a true-color land surface map of the U.S. that was created using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites.

To access more information, as well as the animation – it’s a click away here:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/severe-weather-20120302.html

By Leonard David