Those rainfall maps are also made into a seven-day "movie loop" that allows users to track storms as they travel over land and oceans around the globe. The rainfall animations are developed in the Laboratory for Atmospheres of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. by the TRMM precipitation research team.
The tremendous amounts of rain caused mudslides and raging rivers that overflowed their banks and caused widespread flooding and erosion. In the city of Chihpen, Taiwan, one hotel that was evacuated along the banks of a river collapsed into the river. In the Hsiao-lin village it is feared that a mudslide buried more than 600 residents alive. News reports in Taiwan are calling Morakot's flooding the worst in 50 years.
This animation shows Typhoon Morakot's rainfall Aug. 3-10, when it traveled through the East China Sea and brought flooding rains to Taiwan on Aug. 7-8, finally making landfall in east China on Aug. 9.
(Photo Credit: NASA/JAXA TRMM)
The rainfall map that TRMM created Aug. 3-10 over Taiwan and China showed that Typhoon Morakot brought more than 40 inches (purple and pink) of rain fell in central and northern Taiwan.
(Photo Credit: NASA)
Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center