Until now, we did this by taking the temperature at the tops of thunderstorms. NASA's new satellite found a shortcut. To gauge the amount of rainfall a thunderstorm will produce, TRMM does two things. It measures rainfall at Earth's surface and takes vertical measurements of the rain and ice particles in a thunderstorm. In one year, this satellite gathered information on more than 80 hurricanes.
More information leads to more accurate weather predictions.
Right now we can't forecast changes in a hurricane's strength. We do know that the convective bursts in these thunderstorms carry a lot of moisture upward. As that moisture condenses into rain or ice, it releases heat energy. We now need to understand exactly how much this flood of energy intensifies a hurricane. Once we do, we should be better able to forecast how much and when a hurricane will intensify.