Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EARTH OBSERVATION
NASA sees a 14-mile-wide eye and powerful Super Typhoon Songda
by Staff Writers
Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 31, 2011


This infrared image of Super Typhoon Songda was captured by the AIRS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite on May 27, 2011, at 5:05 UTC (1:05 a.m. EDT). At this time, Songda was a Category 4 storm. The purple areas indicate very strong thunderstorms with heavy rainfall and there is a large area of them that surround the visible eye. Taiwan is northwest of the storm. Credit: NASA/JPL, Ed Olsen

Typhoon Songda became a Super Typhoon in the evening on May 26, 2011 (Eastern Daylight Time) was it reached a Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. NASA satellite data shows that the monster storm with a 14 mile-wide eye has weakened due to adverse wind conditions and is still a powerful Category 4 typhoon.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Super Typhoon Songda on May 27, 2011 at 5:05 UTC (1:05 a.m. EDT).

At that time Songda was a Category 4 storm. The infrared image showed a large area of very strong thunderstorms with heavy rainfall surrounding the eye of the storm. The eye is almost 14 miles (12 nm/22 km) in diameter and those thunderstorms were dropping rainfall as much as 2 inches (50 mm) per hour.

On May 27 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), Typhoon Songda's maximum sustained winds were near 125 knots (143 mph/231 kmh) down from its peak of 140 knots (161 mph/260 kmh) which it reached late on May 26. Sondga has tracked north-northwest but is expected to turn to the north-northeast.

AIRS infrared imagery shows that the cloud tops are warming, and convection (rapidly rising air that forms the thunderstorms that power a tropical cyclone) is weakening. The rule with infrared imagery and thunderstorms is: the colder the cloud top, the stronger the convection and stronger the thunderstorm.

So, what's making Sondga weaken? Cooler sea surface temperatures (now that its north of 20 degrees north latitude) and increasing southwesterly vertical wind shear.

Taiwan is already feeling the effects from Sondga as the surf has kicked up and is expected to remain rough until Sondga passes this weekend. Songda is currently expected to pass just to the east of Ishigakijima island and to the west of Kadena Air Base, putting the island on the strongest side (the northeastern corner) of the storm.

Songda is then forecast by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to continue moving northeast and curving past the east coast of Japan, while its center remains at sea. By May 30, Songda is expected to have passed Japan.

.


Related Links
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EARTH OBSERVATION
For Aquarius, Sampling Seas No 'Grain of Salt' Task
Washington DC (SPX) May 27, 2011
The breakthrough moment for oceanographer Gary Lagerloef, the principal investigator for NASA's new Aquarius mission, came in 1991. That's when he knew it would be possible to make precise measurements of ocean salinity from space. It has taken nearly two decades to turn that possibility into a reality. Lagerloef was looking at data collected by a NASA aircraft flying over the ocean off th ... read more


EARTH OBSERVATION
Parts of moon interior as wet as Earth's upper mantle

NASA-Funded Scientists Make Watershed Lunar Discovery

Moon may have more water than believed: study

President Kennedy's Speech and America's Next Moonshot Moment

EARTH OBSERVATION
Opportunity Spies Outcrop Ahead

A mole to explore the interior of Mars

Mars Formed Rapidly into Runt of Planetary Litter

NASA's Spirit Rover Completes Mission on Mars

EARTH OBSERVATION
NASA and Hawaii Partner for Space Exploration

NASA is Making Hot, Way Cool

Paolos wild ride down from ISS onboard Soyuz TMA-20

ATV-4 to carry name Albert Einstein

EARTH OBSERVATION
China's Fengyun-3B satellite goes into official operation

Venezuela, China to launch satellite next year

Top Chinese scientists honored with naming of minor planets

China sees smooth preparation for launch of unmanned module

EARTH OBSERVATION
On-Orbit Orion MPCV Navigation System Tested During STS-134 Shuttle Mission

Final Endeavour spacewalk marks 1,000 hours of station EVAs

Fourth and Final Shuttle Astronaut Spacewalk Set

Astronauts test new exercises on space walk

EARTH OBSERVATION
Payload processing underway for ASTRA 1N

Cosmica Spacelines And XCOR Aerospace Tout Suborbital Payload Flight Opportunties

Should India Go Suborbital

ASTRA 1N delivered to French Guiana

EARTH OBSERVATION
Second Rocky World Makes Kepler-10 a Multi-Planet System

Kepler's Astounding Haul of Multiple-Planet Systems Just Keeps Growing

Bennett team discovers new class of extrasolar planets

Climate scientists reveal new candidate for first habitable exoplanet

EARTH OBSERVATION
Two new tablets unveiled ahead of top Asia IT fair

Hackers highlight Sony's need for new ideas

Jobs to unveil Apple software innovations

China to step up fight against plastic addiction




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement