Super Typhoon Megi (20W) made landfall on the island of Taiwan as a Category 4 storm (CIMSS SATCON) on 27 September 2016, as seen on JMA Himawari-8 Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window (10.4 µm) images (above; also available as a 69 Mbyte animated GIF). It is interesting to note the blossoming of cold cloud-top IR brightness temperatures of -80º C and colder (violet color enhancement) west of the island after landfall.

The MIMIC-TC product (below) showed that Megi was going through an eyewall replacement cycle around the time of landfall.

View only this post Read Less

A fire at the Aguirre power plant in Salinas (located along the southern coast of Puerto Rico) on 21 September 2016 triggered a widespread power outage across the island. A comparison of Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 um) images of Puerto Rico on a cloud-free “clear view” night (31 December 2015) and the 2 nights following the power outage (22 and 23 September) is shown above (visualized using RealEarth); the nighttime glow of city lights is dramatically reduced on the 22 September image, while some restoration of power to much of the island — reportedly 75% — is apparent on the 23 September image.  Additional details and images can be found on the NASA Earth Observatory site.

View only this post Read Less

Tropical Storm Karl in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean was a disorganized storm early on 19 September (as noted in these two discussions from the National Hurricane Center at 0300 and 0900 UTC): the surface circulation was displaced to the south and west of the deep convection. Night-time determination of the center location from infrared imagery for such storms is difficult. However, the Day/Night Band on the VIIRS instrument on board Suomi NPP can provide visible imagery at night and such visible imagery can aid in surface feature detection. The toggle above shows the 11.45 µm Infrared image from Suomi NPP just before 0400 UTC and the 0.70 µm Day/Night Band visible image from the same time. With the aid of ample illumination from the Moon (that was in the Waning Gibbous phase, at 85% of Full) the low-level swirl of clouds was apparent near the storm center at 18.2 N, 46.7 W (a bit south and west of the center as noted by the National Hurricane Center at 0300 UTC).

A zoomed-in image toggle centered on the low-level circulation is below.

(Imagery courtesy of William Straka, SSEC)

View only this post Read Less

Tropical Storm Julia formed near the coast of northeastern Florida overnight on 13 September 2016 (NHC advisory archive) and moved inland over Jacksonville Florida. Suomi NPP Day/Night Band imagery, toggled above with 11.45 micron Infrared imagery shows a sheared system with most of the convection east and north of the center (that was at that time inland over Florida). Julia’s slow movement in combination with abundant moisture (a Total Precipitable Water product from this site is shown below) means flooding is likely in some regions.

View only this post Read Less