NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) has been eyeing Linda’s rainfall as a way to help determine her strength. In a satellite image captured late yesterday, Linda had several areas of moderate rainfall around her center. As of 11 a.m. today, September 11, however, there were no more visible areas of organized deep convection.

At 11 a.m. EDT Tropical Storm Linda was 1,355 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California, near 20.6 north and 130.9 west. Linda’s winds were down to 45 mph, and she was moving north-northwest near 6 mph. Minimum central pressure is 1000 millibars.

The TRMM rainfall analysis derived from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) instruments was overlaid on a combined Visible and Infrared image from the Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS). This rainfall analysis showed that moderate rainfall was associated with Linda, particularly to the north of her center of circulation.

Now that Linda is in sea surface temperatures colder than 80F and is being pummeled by a southerly wind shear, plus dry air, she’s weakening at a fast rate. The National Hurricane Center noted that it’s unlikely she’ll pull through these tough environmental factors, and will likely be declared a remnant low pressure system tonight.

Extremely High Clouds in Mujigae

Microwave imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite revealed extremely high thunderstorms in Tropical Depression Mujigae while it was making its way over Hainan Island, China. The tops of the thunderstorms were so high, in fact they topped out near the tropopause, the level of atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere.

Those high thunderstorms mean very heavy rainfall for the area below them, and that was southern Hainan Island. The clouds were so high, in fact, to the 200 millibar level in the atmosphere, that the temperatures within were as cold or colder than -63 Fahrenheit. Mujigae made landfall early this morning over the southern region of Hainan Island and brought heavy rain to the Wenchang and Haikou areas before moving west into South China Sea toward Vietnam.

Microwave images are created when data from NASA’s Aqua satellite Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) instruments are combined. These microwave images indicate where there is precipitation or ice in the cloud tops and the latest microwave image revealed Mujigae had cold, high thunderstorms.

NASA’s QuikScat made an early morning fly-by today, September 11 at 6:53 a.m. EDT. QuikScat uses microwave technology to determine a tropical cyclone’s surface wind speeds, and it captured data of Mujigae’s surface winds after it moved over Hainan Island.

Several hours later, at 11 a.m. today, September 11, Mujigae was located about 115 nautical miles southeast of Hanoi, Vietnam, near 19.7 north 106.9 east and was moving west near 9 mph. Its maximum sustained winds were still near 34 mph.

The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that “Mujigae will continue to track westward into coastal Vietnam within the next 12 to 18 hours, and will begin to dissipate quickly.”.