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West Pacific Typhoon Yutu

By Scott Bachmeier •

Himawari-8

Himawari-8 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

Rapid-scan (2.5-minute interval) Himawari-8 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the formation of a well-defined eye as Typhoon Yutu rapidly intensified from a Category 2 to a Category 4 storm  (ADT | SATCON) east of Guam on 23 October 2018. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures were -90ºC or colder (yellow pixels embedded within violet-enhanced areas) — which was several degrees colder than the -84ºC tropopause temperature on rawinsonde data at Guam (below).

Plot of Guam rawinsonde data [click to enlarge]

Plot of Guam rawinsonde data [click to enlarge]

During this period of rapid intensification, Yutu was moving over very warm water and through an environment of low (favorable) deep-layer wind shear — and satellite-derived winds from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) showed the development of well-defined mid/upper-level outflow channels to the northwest and southeast of the storm, which also aided the intensification process.

Himawari-8 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with mid/upper-level satellite-derived winds [click to enlarge]

Himawari-8 Mid-level Water Vapor (6.9 µm) images, with mid/upper-level satellite-derived winds [click to enlarge]

Categories: Himawari-8, Satellite winds, Tropical cyclones