Depression 10P Strengthen into Tropical Storm Nisha
At 6:35 a.m. ET January 28, TRMM captured Tropical Storm Nisha’s rainfall. The storm has strengthened quickly and there are many areas within the storm that have rainfall rates of over 2 inches per hour (red). The green and yellow areas indicate light to moderate rainfall (.78-1.69 inches per hour). The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite is managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA. At 11:35 UTC (6:35 a.m. ET) today, January 28, TRMM flew over Nisha and captured an image of the storm’s rainfall. The storm has strengthened quickly and there are many areas within the storm that have rainfall rates of over 2 inches per hour. TRMM also noticed that the highest cloud heights on the thunderstorms on the northeast quadrant of the storm are as high as 6 miles (10 kilometers). The rainfall is all to the southeast of the storm’s center indicating wind shear from the northwest. The yellow and green areas indicate moderate rainfall between .78 to 1.57 inches per hour. The very small red areas are heavy rainfall at almost 2 inches per hour. |
January 28, 2010
Tropical Depression 10P on January 27 at 12:17 UTC. When Aqua passed over Tropical Depression 10P (TD 10P) on January 27 at 12:17 UTC (7:17 a.m. ET) it was located near 15.1 South and 169.7 W, had maximum sustained winds near 39 mph (35 knots) and a minimum central pressure of 996 millibars. That places TD 10P’s center about 45 nautical miles west-southwest of Pago Pago, American Samoa. TD 10P is moving east-southeast at a speedy 20 mph (18 knots). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite took an infrared image of TD 10P earlier today, January 27, revealing the depression was strengthening quickly. Ground observations from the Ta’u Airport at American Samoa agreed with the 35 maximum sustained wind-speed satellite estimate. Ground observations noted that air pressure has dropped over the last day, to 997.5 millibars, which also indicates a strengthening storm. |
