The satellite of the Finnish nuclear power plant sees Molave on the move
The satellite of the Finnish nuclear power plant sees Molave on the move
Status Report From: NASA Headquarters
Posted: on Wednesday, August 12, 2015
A satellite from NASA-NOAA’s Finnish nuclear power plant flew over Tropical Storm Molave as it was moving away from Japan.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument on the satellite gave a visible picture of the storm, showing that most of the rainfall was to the southeast of the orbit. Clouds and thunderstorms pushed southeast with a northwest wind speed of 10-20 knots / 11.5-23.0 mph / 18.5-37.0 km / h. Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) Wind data showed that the strongest winds were in the same southeast quadrant.
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 the properties of clouds and aerosols, the color of the ocean, the temperature of the sea and the earth’s surface, the movement and temperature of ice, fires, and the albedo (reflected light) on Earth.
On August 12, 2015 at 3:00 PM UTC (11:00 AM EDT), the tropical storm in Molave had the greatest sustained wind near 40 knots (46 mph / 74 kmph). Its center was near 33.8 north latitude and 149.9 east longitude, about 512 nautical miles east of Yokosuka, Japan. Molave was moving east at 13 knots (15 mph / 24 km / h) and away from Japan.
Molave is moving east-northeast and forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expect it to intensify slightly to 50 knots as it monitors sea level temperatures close to 26.6 degrees Celsius (80 Fahrenheit). Molave is expected to become extratropic south of the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.
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