NASA-NOAA’s Finland nuclear power plant satellite gets a colorful look from Hurricane Blanca
NASA-NOAA’s Finland nuclear power plant satellite flew over Hurricane Blanca in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and collected the storm’s infrared data, which were colored to show the locations of the storm’s strongest thunderstorms.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, aboard the satellite, collected infrared data from the storm, which was imaged at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The image was the wrong color to indicate the temperature. The coldest cloud temperatures indicate higher, more intense thunderstorms in the tropical cyclone. These are typically the strongest storms that can have heavy rains.
VIIRS is a scanning radiometer that collects visible and infrared images as well as “radiometric” measurements. In essence, it means that VIIRS data is used to measure cloud and aerosol properties, ocean color, sea and surface temperature, ice movement and temperature, fires, and the albedo (reflected light) of the earth.
VIIRS image on June 5 at 8.11 UTC (4:11 am EDT) showed the two coldest cloud areas and the strongest storms were in the west-southwest and east-northeast center of the Blanca rotation center.
On June 5, at 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), Blanca’s maximum sustained winds were close to 105 mph (165 km / h) and there were more gusts. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts some strengthening over the next day. The decline is forecast to begin on Saturday.
At the time, the NHC placed Hurricane Blanca near the center of 14.3 north latitude and 106.2 west. This puts downtown about 350 miles (560 km) southwest of Manzanillo in Mexico and about 630 miles (1030 km) southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The estimated minimum pressure is 968 millibars (28.59 inches).
Blanca is moving towards the northwest at close to 17 km / h. The northwest-northwest movement at the same speed forward is expected to continue on Saturday night.
Blanca has sparked surfing off the southwest coast of Mexico and will reach the Pacific coast of the Baja California Peninsula and the south coast of the Gulf of California later today, June 5th.
On the forecast track, the center of Blanca will approach the southern Baja California Peninsula on Sunday. The NHC warns that “Sites of interest on the Southern Baja California Peninsula should follow the progress of Blanca. A tropical storm or hurricane bell is likely to be required for part of Baja California Suria later today.”
The NHC predicts Blanca will make a landing at the southeastern tip of Baja California on Sunday, June 7, and will follow northeast on the Baja California Peninsula for several days.
The satellite sees Hurricane Blanca developing a pinhole eye
Quotation: NASA-NOAA’s Finland Nuclear Power Plant Satellite Receives Colorful Overview of Hurricane Blanca (2015, June 5), retrieved October 12, 2021 at https://phys.org/news/2015-06-nasa-noaa-english- npp-satellite-Hurricane. html
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