The movement and landfall of Tropical Cyclone Bingiza was captured over the weekend of Feb. 12-13 in a series of infrared satellite imagery from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. Aqua and Terra provided companion visible images to the infrared images of Bingiza’s track across northern Madagascar.

On February 12 at 21:35 UTC (4:35 p.m. EST or 12:35 a.m. on Feb. 13 Madagascar local time) Cyclone Bingiza’s center was still at sea, and an eye was visible indicating that the cyclone had strengthened. Madagascar time is GMT time plus three hours. On Feb. 13 at 0947 UTC (4:47 EST) AIRS noticed the western edge of Bingiza was already bringing rainfall and gusty winds over northeastern Madagascar and the storm appeared to be expanding. A large band of thunderstorms had developed and were wrapped around the outer eastern edge of the cyclone at that time. On Feb. 13 at 22:17 UTC (5:17 p.m. EST), Bingiza’s center was on the northeastern coastline and it was making landfall. The center of Cyclone Bingiza made landfall today, Feb. 14 at 0600 UTC (1 a.m. EST) after moving across the Masoala Peninsula and skirting Antongil Bay.

A low pressure area located a couple of hundred miles northwest of Western Australia appears in a better position for development into a tropical cyclone according to infrared NASA satellite imagery. Infrared imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite shows some strong convection in the low, named System 96S.

When Aqua passed over System 96S on Feb. 9 at 17:47 UTC (12:47 p.m. EST), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument showed some strong convection and strong thunderstorms with very cold cloud-top temperatures around the center of circulation. Those cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than -63 Fahrenheit/-52 Celsius indicating strong convection, strong thunderstorms, and heavy rainfall. The imagery suggests that the convection is consolidating and increasing around the low’s center.