The Finnish nuclear power plant sees the weaker hurricane Jimena
Hurricane Jimena is on the decline and is expected to continue to weaken. A satellite from NASA-NOAA’s Finnish nuclear power plant flew over Hurricane Jimena and saw the strongest thunderstorm to its south and northeast. Jimena is expected to bring hard surfing to the Hawaiian Islands over the weekend of September 5th and 6th.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument on the satellite provided infrared data from the storm, indicating the coldest cloud temperatures, suggesting that the strongest thunderstorms were in the northern quadrant of Jimena. Cloud temperatures were as high as -80 degrees Celsius (-112 Fahrenheit), indicating severe storms that could cause heavy rainfall.
NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) said the water vapor images strongly suggest that the system has been drained very dry, reducing the development of thunderstorms. In addition, the CPHC noted that the outflow (air at the peak of the storm was pushed to the periphery of the hurricane from the center) “showed some limitations in the western quarter.” In the VIIRS image, the western quadrant lacked strong thunderstorms.
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, and the temperatures of the oceans and land surface.
On September 4, 2015, Jimena was far northwest of Hawaii. At 11 a.m. EDT (5 p.m. HST / 1,500 UTC), the center of Jimena was located near latitude 19.7 in the north and 145.1 in west longitude. It is about 650 miles (1,045 km) east of Hilo, Hawaii and 835 miles (1,345 km) east of Honolulu.
Despite its distance from Hawaii, the CPHC expects hard surfing to continue to affect Hawaii. The CPHC said that “the large and powerful waves caused by Hurricane Jimena will cause dangerous and potentially harmful surfing on Hawaii’s main islands this weekend (September 5 and 6), mainly on the east coast.
The maximum continuous wind is close to 85 mph (140 km / h) and a gradual decline is expected. The estimated minimum mean pressure is 975 millibars. Jimena was moving northwest at about 5 mph (7 km / h) and is expected to move northwest. Updated forecasts are available from NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center at: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc.
The CPHC noted that on Monday and Tuesday, September 7 and 8, the elongated high-pressure area north of Jimena is forecast to strengthen in the mid-atmosphere. As a result, it is likely to push the storm west. The CPHC predicts a steady decline over the next several days and expects Jimena to be depressed by September 9th.
GPM sees the intense wall of Hurricane Jimena
Quotation: Finnish nuclear power plant sees weaker hurricane Jimena (2015, September 4) retrieved on December 12, 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2015-09-english-pp-weaker-hurricane-jimena.html
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