Tropical storms seen from space

During the past week, there has been a marked rise in the number of tropical storms around the world, as the cumulative heat of summer provides energy for them to thrive.

So far this season, it has been the Asia Pacific region that has been worst hit, with typhoons making landfall in Taiwan, China, Japan and the Philippines, resulting in loss of life.

Up to now, the Atlantic hurricane season has been very quiet, with only the second named storm of the year, Tropical Storm Bertha, moving through the eastern end of the Caribbean at the weekend.

Advances in the detail and frequency of satellite images taken from space means that the storms can now be monitored around the clock, allowing us to make better predictions of the places that are most likely to be affected by them. 

EUMETSAT is one of the leading centres for gathering and archiving satellite imagery, providing an array of images that monitor clouds, dust, aerosols and much more.

During that last 24 hours, it has captured some stunning images of a number of storms currently roaming the oceans of our planet.

Hurricane Iselle and Tropical Storm Julio

The beautiful image below shows Hurricane Iselle (circled red) and Tropical Storm Julio (circled orange) over the north east Pacific.

Hurricane Iselle has been described by the National Hurricane Center as an annular hurricane because it has a symmetrical eye.

Iselle is currently a major category three hurricane, with sustained winds of around 125mph and heading for Hawaii. However, by the time it reaches Hawaii, it is expected to have weakened to a tropical storm.

Tropical Storm Julio is forecast to gain strength in the coming days, becoming a hurricane later on Tuesday. It isn’t expected to bother land though, remaining over open water.

Typhoon Halong

This image is an infra-red satellite picture that has had different colours applied to the tops of clouds that are different temperatures.

In this case, the red and pink colours indicate cloud tops that have a temperature of -70C or below. In meteorology, the higher the cloud in the atmosphere, the colder it is.

The coldest clouds in the case of tropical storms are a sign of development and therefore appear around the core of the storm, where damaging winds, torrential rain and thunderstorms are most prevalent.

Halong was a super typhoon at the time that this image was taken, but has now weakened a little to a typhoon.

It is expected to reach the south west of Japan on Saturday, but will more than likely be a strong tropical storm by that point.

I’ll be keeping a close on the storms’ progress this week and posting updates on Twitter – @liamdutton

Images: EUMETSAT