Typhoon Chaba early this morning and captured visible and infrared images of its clouds revealing a well-organized and strengthening typhoon.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on Aqua captured a visible image of Typhoon Chaba on October 26 at 04:50 UTC (12:50 a.m. EDT), as it moved through the Philippine Sea. Chaba is a large storm that stretches from the southern Philippines north to the Okinawa province of Japan.

The coldest, strongest, highest thunderstorm cloud tops were as cold or colder than -63 Fahrenheit. Comparisons of infrared image over the six hour period between 12:50 a.m. EDT and 6:50 a.m. EDT showed a sharp increase in colder cloud tops around the low-level circulation center of Chaba, indicating the storm is strengthening quickly.

At 11 a.m. EDT on Oct. 26, Typhoon Chaba had maximum sustained winds near 75 knots (86 mph). It was about 430 nautical miles south-southeast of Kadena Air Base, Japan near 20.4 North and 128.1 East. It was moving northwestward near 5 knots (6 mph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecasts Chaba to pass just to the east of Kadena Air Base late in the early morning hours of Oct. 29 local time, Kadena/Toyko Time (late in the evening of Oct. 28 EDT). Chaba is then forecast to track northeast and make landfall in Japan between Kyoto and Toyko at night local time on Oct. 30 (morning hours EDT).

Cyclone Giri rapidly intensified last week before it slammed into the coast of Myanmar, and infrared satellite imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite conveyed its strength.

Giri’s cloud tops had grown very cold, very quickly on Oct. 22 at 0653 UTC (2:53 a.m. EDT) indicating higher thunderstorm heights and a strengthening in the storm. High thunderstorm cloud tops indicate a strong storm. When the thunderstorm cloud heights start dropping, they become less cold, and the thunderstorms are less powerful. Cloud-top temperatures are important because they tell forecasters how high thunderstorms are, and the higher the thunderstorm, the colder the cloud tops and the more powerful the thunderstorms.

When AIRS captured the infrared image of Giri, the eye of the cyclone was clearly visible and still off-shore. The AIRS image also showed that at that time (0653 UTC) the strongest thunderstorms were still mostly over the Bay of Bengal and had not yet moved over land.

Cyclone Giri made landfall in near Hunters Bay, Myanmar on Friday, Oct. 22 with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph, the top end of a Category Four Cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Some newspaper reports indicate that at least 27 people were killed and more were missing. A couple of thousand homes were also reported damaged from Giri. Giri has since dissipated inland.