CYCLONE 19P IS NOW SANDRA
Text Credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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| This infrared image of Sandra was captured by the AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite on March 8 . Sandy's center and a band of thunderstorms east of center have strong (purple) thunderstorms dropping heavy rainfall. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen |
Cyclone 19P is renamed as Sandra on 8 March,2013. NASA's Aqua Satellite Captures Sandra's Infrared data, it seems to be strengthening. NASA says Residents of New Caledonia should prepare for impacts from Sandra early next week.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Cyclone Sandra's cloud top temperatures on March 8 at 1717 UTC (12:17 p.m. EST). Strong thunderstorms around Sandra's center and in a band east of the center appeared as cold as -63 Fahrenheit (-52 Celsius), and are indicative of heavy rainfall.
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite noticed areas of heavy rainfall in low pressure System 92P hours before it became the nineteenth tropical cyclone of the Southern Pacific Ocean.
NASA's TRMM satellite captured a look at the rainfall rates within low pressure System 92P on March 7 at 0023 UTC (March 6 at 7:23 p.m. EST), just hours before it became Tropical Cyclone 19P (TC 19P). TRMM data indicated that heavy rain was falling at a rate of 2 inches/50 mm per hour around the center of circulation, and that some of the thunderstorms were powerful as they topped heights of 9.3 miles (15 kilometers). Bands of thunderstorms around the storm expanded, strengthened and wrapped tighter around the storm's center today, March 7, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).
On March 7 at 1200 UTC (7 a.m. EST) the intensifying tropical storm had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/64 kph). TC 19P was centered near 15.4 south latitude and 156.9 east longitude about 660 nautical miles (759.5 miles/1,222 km) northwest of Noumea, New Caledonia. TC19P was moving to the east-northeast at 11 knots (12.6 mph/20.3 kph).
JTWC forecasters expect TC 19P to strengthen and curve to the southeast, affecting New Caledonia by March 11.
Text Credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.