NASA Satellite and Aircraft Data

NASA satellite imagery and aircraft data revealed Tropical Storm Danny’s center reformed a little farther north than it was yesterday. The center of his circulation is “broad and elongated” so it’s been somewhat challenging to pinpoint his center. The National Hurricane Center used NASA QuikScat data to confirm winds early this morning. From QuikScat data, they determined that “Danny does not have a typical tropical cyclone structure and has most of the strong winds located well north and east of the center.”

Another of the satellites in NASA’s fleet that provides helpful imagery is the Aqua satellite and its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). MODIS captured an image Danny at 2:30 p.m. EDT yesterday, August 26. Satellite imagery and aircraft data since that time confirmed that Danny’s center is now near 27.4 north and 72.1 west. That’s about 370 miles east-northeast of Nassau or 575 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Danny’s maximum sustained winds near 5 a.m. EDT this morning, August 27 were near 60 mph, but slow strengthening is expected. After all, Danny is near the Gulf Stream flow along the east coast. Danny is moving northwest near 10 mph, and is expected to turn north. Danny had a minimum central pressure near 1006 millibars.

The computer forecast models that the National Hurricane Center uses are “in excellent agreement on a turn toward the north on Friday as Danny moves between a ridge (an elongated area of high pressure) over the western Atlantic Ocean and a shortwave trough (an elongated area of low pressure, like a cold front) over the southeastern United States.”