Parma has reemerged over the open waters of the South China Sea and will head west-northwest, slowly intensifying a little. The storm is expected to pass over Hainan Island before making final landfall in Vietnam early next week.

NASA’s Aqua satellite AIRS instrument captured Tropical Storm Parma on October 8 at 1:47 p.m. EDT. The Aqua satellite image showed that Parma had re-strengthened into a tropical storm and has developed some high, strong thunderstorms in the storm’s center, which had already moved off the coast of the Philippines. Thunderstorm cloud tops were as cold as -63 Fahrenheit, indicating powerful thunderstorms, with moderate rainfall. Satellite data indicates there is limited, yet deep convection, and most of the deep convection has dissipated recently because of a moderate easterly wind shear (winds that tear a storm apart).

On October 9 at 11 a.m. EDT, Tropical Storm Parma had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (35 knots). Parma’s center is finally in the South China Sea, and it is located about 400 nautical miles southeast of Hong Kong, near 17.4 North and 118.7 East. Parma is moving northwestward near 8 mph.

At 4:09 p.m. local time on Friday, October 9 the floodwaters in some provinces in Central Luzon have begun to subside after days of Parma’s heavy rains. Recent reports indicate many people are missing and at least 102 people have died from flooding and landslides. Most of the deaths were reported in the Cordillera Administrative Region of the Philippines.

Parma is not expected to intensify significantly in the next 48 hours because of the upper level winds that are battering it and cooler ocean water temperatures it is headed toward. Over the weekend, Parma’s center is expected to sweep the southern part Hainan island and will weaken afterward on its forecast track to Vietnam.

NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over the latest tropical depression in the Western Pacific Ocean and looked at the storm called “Nepartak” using instruments that use microwave technology. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on Aqua captured infrared, visible and microwave imagery of Nepartak and showed where the strongest thunderstorms were located.

Tropical Depression Nepartak had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots on October 9 at 11 a.m. EDT. It was located in the Western Pacific Ocean, about 290 miles south-southeast of the island of Iwo To (formerly Iwo Jima), near 20.3 North and 142.5 East. It was moving north-northwest near 5 mph, and was generating waves up to 12 feet high.

The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasts tropical cyclones in that region. Forecasters there reported that “Recent animated infrared imagery (like that from the AIRS instrument) shows spotty areas of deep convection wrapping towards a low level circulation center. The largest area of convection (and thunderstorms) is located on the eastern quadrant of Nepartak.

Infrared imagery measures temperatures and not only can it see cold, high cloud tops in tropical cyclones, but also the warm ocean waters that power the cyclones (if the sea surface temperatures are over 80F). Cold cloud top temperatures provide clues about the power of the thunderstorms in a tropical cyclone. The colder the clouds are, the higher they are, and the more powerful the thunderstorms are that make up the cyclone.

AIRS data is also coupled with data from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) that flies with AIRS on Aqua to create microwave images of storms. The AMSU image uses the radiances of the 89 GHz channel, and the cold areas in those images indicate where there is precipitation or ice in the cloud tops.

Meanwhile, data from NASA’s QuikScat satellite indicated a “tightly wrapped low-level center of circulation.” QuikScat showed wind speeds of 25-30 knots mostly in the storm’s eastern quadrant.

Nepartak is forecast to swing north and turn north-northeast over the weekend, passing east of Iwo To and Chichi Jima. Those islands are likely just to experience high surf as the center of Nepartak stays far off-shore.