NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites flew over Super Typhoon Melor early today, October 5 and captured some impressive images of the storm’s clouds on a track toward Japan. The Western Pacific Ocean has the edge on super typhoons, and Melor’s maximum sustained winds near 161 mph are more proof.

Typhoon Melor tracked through the channel between Saipan and Agrihan on Saturday night, and became a Super Typhoon on Sunday. Melor’s winds dropped to 130 mph just before it passed near the island of Saipan this weekend and it was far enough away to not cause any major damage, according to local news reports. Downed trees and heavy rain were experienced Saturday afternoon and overnight into Sunday (local time), but no major flooding was reported.

On October 5 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), Super Typhoon Melor’s winds were up to 161 mph, and it was located approximately 585 nautical miles southeast of Okinawa, near 19.6 North and 134.3 East. Melor is moving west-northwestward at 19 mph.

NASA’s Terra satellite flew over Melor during the early morning hours on October 5. The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on Terra provided a dramatic image of Melor at Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson scale with maximum sustained winds near 161 mph!

NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over Super Typhoon Melor mid-day on October 4 and captured an infrared image of the monster typhoon. Aqua’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument and Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) analyzed temperatures in Melor’s clouds. AIRS revealed the cold high thunderstorm cloud temperatures were colder than minus 63 Fahrenheit indicating a very strong tropical cyclone.

Forecasters at the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center have amended the forecast track for Melor, and take the super typhoon on a path resembling the letter “C” in the Western Pacific Ocean. The storm is forecast to swing just east of Kadena island Japan, then turn northeast (because westerly winds will push it northeast) and its center is now expected to brush Tokyo before it swings northeast back into the open Western Pacific.

There’s good news about the storm’s strength however. Melor will slowly weaken as a because of increased vertical wind shear (winds blowing sometimes at different directions, at different levels of the atmosphere that can tear a storm apart) and cooler waters. When Melor is south of Tokyo, it’s expected to interact with a baroclinic boundary (i.e. a front) and become extratropical.

Tropical Storm Olaf wasn’t given much of a chance when he was born, and he never did make it to hurricane strength before fizzling out late Saturday night. NASA’s Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery that clearly showed Olaf’s clouds stretched eastward out over mainland Mexico, away from it’s center of circulation near Baja California.

At 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, October 3, the National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory on Olaf. By that time, he was just classified as a remnant low pressure area.

Olaf was basically reduced to a tight swirl of low clouds approaching the west coast of southern Baja California. When precipitation and clouds separate from the center of the wind circulation and that’s a tell-tale sign of a storm’s demise. That’s what happened with Olaf late Saturday. Olaf’s clouds and rains moved northeast of his center and were located over mainland Mexico. Northwestern Mexico received Olaf’s rains and gusty winds as he faded away.

Quikscat image of Olaf

NASA’s QuikScat captured the eastern half of Olaf’s winds using microwaves to see through his clouds on Oct. 2. The purple area in the center revealed the strongest winds. At this time, maximum sustained winds were near 45 mph. Wind direction is indicated by small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. Credit: NASA JPL, Peter Falcon NASA’s Quick Scatterometer satellite (QuikScat) passed over Olaf when he was a tropical storm on Olaf captured Oct 2, at 01:42 UTC (9:42 p.m. ET on October 1) and confirmed tropical storm force winds. QuikScat uses microwaves to peer into a storm’s clouds and determine the speed of the rotating winds at the surface. At that time, maximum sustained winds were 45 mph, but adverse environmental conditions such as upper level winds and cooler sea surface temperatures weakened Olaf quickly afterward.

NASA’s Aqua satellite got a great image of Olaf’s clouds stretching away from his center of circulation on October 3. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that is used to measure cloud top temperature and atmospheric pressure among other environmental factors clearly showed Olaf’s center west of Baja California, but his clouds stretching over the Baja and into northwestern mainland Mexico. Those cloud top temperatures were around -63F indicating that there were still some strong thunderstorms in the storm as it was breaking apart, so Olaf was leaving behind some moderate rainfall and gusty winds as he began to dissipate. As of Monday, October 5, Olaf has dissipated.