Finland’s nuclear power plant satellite sees tropical cyclone Chapala developing an eye
Tropical Cyclone Chapala developed in the Arabian Sea on October 28 as the fourth tropical depression in the North Indian Ocean Basin and strengthened into a hurricane on October 29. NASA-NOAA’s Finland Nuclear Power Plant satellite passed over Chapala and captured a visible image of the storm that showed it had become more organized over a 24-hour period and appeared to be developing an eye feature.
On Oct. 28 at 2129 UTC (5:29 p.m. EDT), infrared images from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite looked at cloud temperatures in Chapala. AIRS data showed that the top of Cyclone Chapala’s powerful storms had cold clouds near minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) in the center of the developing eye.
On October 29 at 08:30 UTC (4:30 EDT), NASA-NOAA’s Finland Nuclear Power Plant Satellite’s VIIRS instrument captured visible image tropical cyclone Chapala in the Arabian Sea. The VIIRS image showed strong thunderstorms circling the center and plunging into the northern quadrant as a band from the northeast. The visible VIIRS image also showed a hint of a developing eye, while the microwave data showed that the eye had developed.
VIIRS collects visible and infrared images and global observations of land, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans.
As of 3:00 PM UTC (11:00 AM EDT) on October 29, 2015, Tropical Cyclone Chapala’s maximum sustained winds had reached 65 knots (75 mph/120 kmph). Chapala was located near 14.2 degrees north latitude and 63.1 degrees east longitude, about 446 nautical miles (513.2 mi/826 km) southeast of Masirah Island. Chapala is moving west-northwest at 8 knots (9.2 mph / 14.8 kmph).
According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center’s forecast, Chapala will strengthen as it moves west over the next several days. Chapala is expected to peak near 115 knots (132.3 mph/213 km/h) on Nov. 1 as it passes north of Socotra Island.
Chapala is forecast to reach hurricane strength in northeast Yemen, south of the Yemeni-Oman border, on November 2.
Delivered by
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Quotation: Finland’s nuclear power plant satellite sees tropical cyclone Chapala developing eye (2015, October 29) retrieved 12/4/2022 from https://phys.org/news/2015-10-suomi-npp-satellite-tropical-cyclone.html
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