PLATE 2 Hurricane Isabel as it approached landfall on the outer banks of North Carolina on September 18, 2003. The image is a true-color (red-green-blue) NASA image taken by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)—the research equivalent of the Visible and Infrared Imager/ Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) to be flown on NPP and operationally by NPOESS in three orbit planes (with global coverage every 4 hours) beginning in 2009. SOURCE: Courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.