This true-color image of Hurricane Hernan off of Baja California was captured on September 2, 2002, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), flying aboard NASA’s Terra spacecraft. In this image, Hernan is moving up the eastern Pacific along the coast of Mexico with Category 3 winds of around 130 miles (200 kilometers) per hour. Hernan peaked on Sunday, September 1 as a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 miles (260 kilometers). Hernan is the only hurricane to reach Category 5 status out of a total of six hurricanes so far this season in the eastern Pacific.
Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC
