Yep, it's hurricane season. And while residents up and down the East Coast have been battening down the hatches in preparation for Hurricane Earl, NASA has used the opportunity to examine the storms from every angle.

Earlier this week 80beats reported that NASA's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) mission is sending a plane back and forth through the eye of Earl; researchers are gathering data to study how and why some storms turn into massive monsters while others dwindle away to nothing. This picture of Earl's eye was taken on Thursday morning while the plane was cruising at an altitude of 60,000 feet (11.4 miles up).