The big island of Japan received Tropical Storm Faxai and NASA’s Aqua satellite provided forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center infrared data and cloud top temperature information that revealed the most powerful storms just off-shore when the satellite flew overhead.
The big island of Japan received Tropical Storm Faxai and NASA’s Aqua satellite provided forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center infrared data and cloud top temperature information that revealed the most powerful storms just off-shore when the satellite flew overhead.
NASA researches tropical cyclones and one of the ways NASA does that is with infrared data that provides temperature information. Cloud top temperatures provide information to forecasters about where the strongest storms are located within a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones do not always have uniform strength, and some sides have stronger sides than others. The stronger the storms, the higher they extend into the troposphere, and they have the colder cloud temperatures.
NASA’s Aqua satellite analyzed the storm on Sept. 8 at 11:59 p.m. EDT (Sept. 9 at 0359 UTC) using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument. AIRS found coldest cloud top temperatures as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) around Faxai’s center and in a large band east of center. NASA research has shown that cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms that have the capability to create heavy rain.
Read more at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Image: On Sept. 8 at 11.59 p.m. EDT (Sept. 9 at 0359 UTC) the AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed cloud top temperatures of Tropical Storm Faxai in infrared light. AIRS found coldest cloud top temperatures (purple) of strongest thunderstorms were as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) around the center and in a large band east of center. (Credit: NASA JPL/Heidar Thrastarson)
