Much of the U. S. East Coast is focused on Hurricane Earl as the Labor Day weekend approaches.

As part of their weather forecasting and Earth observation missions, spacecraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA as well as the astronauts aboard the International Space Station watched this week as Earl’s muscle reached category 4  strength.

The storm weakened Thursday and was forecast to weaken even more.

However, Earl is huge, and as a Category 3 storm hurricane force winds extend out 90 miles.

Warnings and watches extend north along the East Coast from North Carolina to Nova Scotia, and evacuations have been ordered in some areas over the last major holiday of the summer.

Earl as photographed by the Expedition crew of the International Space Station on Aug. 30, after reaching Category 4 status. The storm was north of the Virgin Islands. The image is framed by station solar arrays and a Russian Soyuz crew transport docked to the space station.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of Earl’s temperature gradient on Sept. 1. The purple represents the coldest temperatures, which are associated with towering clouds and heavy rains.

 

NASA’s Jason 1 and Jason 2 spacecraft observations of Earl’s wind speeds on Sept 1 in meters per second.