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Tropical Cyclone Tino in the South Pacific Ocean

By Scott Bachmeier •

Himawari-8

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

JMA Himawari-8 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above) showed the development of Tropical Cyclone Tino in the South Pacific Ocean on 16 January 2020. Tino was moving southeast toward the island nation of Fiji. Convection around the tropical cyclone exhibited extensive cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures (IRBTs) of -90ºC and colder (shades of yellow embedded within the dark purple enhancement), including a few red -100ºC pixels at 1630 UTC.

Plots of rawinsonde data from Fiji (below) showed a tropopause around 100 hPa, where the temperature was around -85ºC — so the tropical overshooting tops with IRBTs in the -90 to -100ºC range were extending into the stratosphere.

Plots of rawinsonde data from Fiji [click to enlarge]

Plots of rawinsonde data from Nandi, Fiji [click to enlarge]

Plots of deep-layer wind shear from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) indicated that Tino gradually intensified within a narrow zone of light shear.

Plots of deep-layer wind shear [click to enlarge]

Plots of deep-layer wind shear [click to enlarge]

===== 17 January Update =====

GOES-17

GOES-17 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A GOES-17 (GOES-West) Mesoscale Domain Sector was positioned over Tropical Cyclone Tino on 17 January, providing images at 1-minute intervals — “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed the continued development of convective bursts, which at times exhibited IRBT values as cold as -100ºC (red pixels on the coldest portion of the enhancement).

Categories: GOES-17, Himawari-8, Satellite winds, Tropical cyclones