Tropical Storm Abele, signaling that it has become more organized and more powerful in the Southern Indian Ocean. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed directly above tropical cyclone Abele in a remote area of the South Indian Ocean on December 1 at 0702 UTC (2:02 a.m. EST). This rainfall analysis from TRMM’s Precipitation Radar (PR) and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) shows that Abele had become much better organized. Increasingly well defined bands of rainfall spiraling into the center of the storm are an indication that ABLE had intensified. The TRMM pass over Abele occurred during daylight hours so the rainfall analysis was overlaid on infrared and visible images from TRMM’s Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS). TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA. On Dec. 2 at 0600 UTC (1 a.m. EST), Abele’s maximum sustained winds were near 60 knots (69 mph). It was about 610 nautical miles west-southwest of Cocos Islands and moving southeastward at 13 mph. Abele is about to run into cooler waters and increased wind shear and is expected to begin weakening in the next day. |
October 22, 2010
Tropical Depression 04B formed in the Northern Indian Ocean and has quickly strengthened into a tropical storm today. The AIRS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm 04B’s cloud top temperatures as it was forming yesterday. NASA’s Aqua satellite’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an image of then Tropical Depression 04B’s cloud top temperatures on Oct. 20 at 18:35 UTC (2:35 p.m. EDT) and saw they had grown colder and higher than they were earlier in the day. Colder cloud tops indicate stronger convection that created those higher, stronger thunderstorms. Cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than -65 degrees Fahrenheit (-53 Celsius). Tropical Depression 04B remained over the eastern Bay of Bengal at the time of the image, and the heavy precipitation was all occurring over the open waters. At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 21, Tropical Storm 04B had maximum sustained winds near 45 knots (49 mph). It was located about 295 nautical miles south of Chittagong, Bangladesh, near 17.6 North and 91.9 East. It is moving northeast at 3 mph. It is in warm waters and the wind shear is light, so it is expected to strengthen quickly into a Cyclone. |
