Hurricane Frances

September 3, 2004

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Frances on September 3, 2004 at 18:24 UTC (2:24 PM EDT). At the time this image was taken Frances was wreaking havoc in the Bahamas with sustained winds of 185 km/hr (115 mph) and a storm surge between 1.8 to 4.3 meters (6 and 14 feet) on the west side of Eleuthera Island. Frances was moving towards the west-northwest at 14 km/hr (9 mph) and was expected to reach the Florida coast in approximately 24 hours.

The MODIS Rapid Response System provides this image at additional resolutions and formats.

NASA image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center