Images: Satellite images give striking storm views

This CloudSat image shows a cross-section of tropical clouds and thunderstorms over eastern Africa. The layered view of storms like these give scientists a better idea of what is happening inside them. CloudSat's Cloud-Profiling Radar is more than 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar and can distinguish between cloud particles and precipitation.

Photo by NASA/JPL/The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA), Colorado State University