The image shows TRMM's view of Pongsona as the storm approached Guam on December 7. The first view looks down on top of the storm, showing the cloud tops as seen by the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) and the rainfall patterns within (provided by the TRMM Precipitation Radar). The edge of the TRMM orbit cuts across the eye, but nevertheless much of the intense eyewall structure can be seen. Extreme rain rates (dark red colors) attest to the storm's super typhoon status. A vertical slice through the storm (second image) shows extremely deep clouds towering northwest of the eye. The intense rains in these clouds release vast amounts of heat energy, powering the storm and spinning up some of the most extreme winds found in nature.

See LARGE quicktime ANIMATION of Rainfall accumulation