JMA Himawari-9 Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images of Cyclone Mocha in the Bay of Bengal on 13 May 2023 (above) displayed cold clouds surrounding an eye that gradually became more cloud-cleared — with isolated cloud-top infrared brightness temperature values of -90ºC and colder (yellow pixels embedded within dark purple regions).... Read More
The mp4 animation above shows the development of Tropical Storm Sanvu out of the Monsoon Trough in the western Pacific ocean on 19-20 April 2023. The ‘Pacific Tropical Airmass RGB’ used in the animation is described in this blog post, and it gives more information about cloud-top features compared to the Airmass RGB... Read More
MIMIC Total Precipitable Water (TPW) fields, above, from 0000 UTC on 14 April through 1200 UTC on 17 April show a stagnation in flow in/around the Samoan Islands, starting around 0600 UTC on 16 April. This occurs as a storm develops northwest of New Zealand and a strong push of dryer air moves Equatorward to... Read More
2.5-minute rapid scan (Target Sector) JMA Himawari-9 “Red” Visible and “Clean” Infrared Window images (above) showed Category 4 Cyclone Ilsa as it approached the northwest coast of Australia, eventually making landfall near Port Hedland (station identifier YPPD) just after 1500 UTC on 13 April 2023. Overshooting tops within the eyewall... Read More
