The Finnish nuclear power plant’s satellite finds a weaker typhoon Ha
On October 10, Hagibis was a super typhoon, but during the night the storm weakened to typhoon status. NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image of a large storm that extended over most of Japan’s large islands.
Visible images from NASA satellites help forecasters understand whether a storm is organizing or weakening based on changes in its structure. The Finnish nuclear power plant’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) device provided a visible image of Hagibis, showing that the eye was filled with cloud. Nevertheless, a solid ring of deep convection (strong thunderstorm) is visible around the compact, 10-nautical-mile-wide eye.
The image was created using NASA Worldview, an Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) data product at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The image showed a cloud-filled eye surrounded by strong thunderstorms and a large cloud tail. flowing northeast from the center that stretched along much of Japan’s east coast.
At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said the center of Typhoon Hagibis was near latitude 28.8 degrees north and longitude 137.5 degrees east. Hagibis is approximately 406 nautical miles south of Yokosuka, Japan. Hagibis was moving north-northwest. Maximum sustained winds near 132 mph (213 km/h/115 knots) and higher in gusts. It is equivalent to a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center stated that Hagibis has continued to weaken and will turn northeast as it approaches Honshu. Hagibis is expected to make a brief landfall near Tokyo on Saturday (GMT) before veering back into the Northwest Pacific. The system is forecast to become extratropical south of the Kuril Islands on Sunday.
Hurricanes are the most powerful weather event on earth. NASA’s space and scientific research expertise contributes to essential services provided by other federal agencies to the American people, such as hurricane forecasting.
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