Although Tropical Storm Goni is “gone” (image to the right) as a tropical cyclone, its remnants are still bringing rains to southeast China. When Goni made landfall, it brought heavy rains to Taishan, located in south China’s Guangdong Province. That province reported as much as 400 millimeters (15.75 inches) of rain and more rain is expected today, August 6 and Friday, August 7, as the remnants continue moving slowly westward. The Fujian Province located next to Guangdong, also reported heavy rainfall. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA‘s Aqua satellite and captured an image of Goni‘s remnants on August 5 at 1:41 p.m. EDT. AIRS measures cloud top temperature and air pressure in tropical cyclones, and although Goni isn’t a tropical cyclone anymore, its rains will continue to be felt for another day or two. (Credit: Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
Felicia is the storm that rules the Eastern Pacific Ocean this week, but Enrique refuses to give up (image above). Felicia is a major hurricane with sustained winds near 140 mph, and Enrique is still hanging onto tropical storm status with 50 mph sustained winds. Both cyclones are close to each other and two NASA satellites captured them together. On August 6 at 5 a.m. EDT, powerful Felicia is still a category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. She’s far out to sea, about 1,480 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California near 15.5 north and 131.2 west. She’s moving west-northwest near 10 mph, and is expected to speed up and start to weaken in the next couple of days because of colder waters in her path. Felicia’s minimum central pressure is 937 millibars. And then, despite Enrique’s close proximity to Felicia, he’s maintaining sustained winds near 50 mph. At 5 a.m. EDT, Enrique’s center was 345 miles behind Felicia’s, near 20.7 north and 125.9 west. He’s speeding northwest near 17 mph into cooler waters which is going to weaken him over the next day or two. Enrique’s minimum central pressure is 1,000 millibars, much higher than Felicia’s indicating a much weaker storm. The higher the atmospheric pressure the weaker the tropical cyclone. NASA‘s Terra satellite flew over Felicia and Enrique and using the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured them side-by-side on August 5 at 3 p.m. EDT. The satellite image clearly showed an eye in powerful Hurricane Felicia, while Tropical Storm Enrique’s eye was not clear. (Credit: Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
Satellite imagery over the last two days (above) has shown Typhoon Morakot to be a monster, and over the last two days, NASA satellites have confirmed the typhoon doubled its size! “Our satellite scan swath width is 1700 kilometers (1,056 miles) and Morakot looks to be almost that much in diameter in the infrared imagery on August 5,” said Ed Olsen, of NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Olsen provides images for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the Aqua satellite. “On August 4 Morakot was only about 1/2 the width of our swath width, near 850 kilometers (528 miles) in diameter!” To put it into perspective, 1,056 miles is longer than the distance from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Orlando, Florida. Olsen said that it’s important to know that satellite image represents the lateral extent of the cold cloud tops and that the winds definitely do not extend over an area 1,000 miles in diameter. AIRS captured an infrared image of Typhoon Morakot tracking through the East China Sea on August 6 at 12:35 a.m. EDT (0435 UTC). At 11 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6, Morakot was closing in on Taiwan and was located 240 miles east-southeast of Taipei, Taiwan, near 23.2 north and 125.0 east. Morakot the monster has maximum sustained winds near 92 mph (80 knots) and was moving west near 14 mph. AIRS provides visible, infrared and microwave images of tropical storms. AIRS also measures cloud top temperature and pressure and the profile of water vapor as functions of height. Infrared imagery shows the temperature of the cloud tops which gives a hint about the power of the thunderstorms in a tropical cyclone. The colder the clouds are, the higher they are, and the more powerful the thunderstorms are that make up the cyclone. Typhoon Morakot is forecast to strengthen more before it crosses northern Taiwan later today and makes a final landfall in China by the weekend. (Credit: Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
