NASA TRMM: Tropical Storm Kammuri's spiral bands of soaking thunderstorms

NASA TRMM satellite flew over the northern half of Tropical Storm Kammuri on Sept. 26 at 1:44 a.m. EDT and saw a strong band of thunderstorms dropping rainfall over 1.2 inches per hour (red). 

Credit: NRL /NASA /JAXA

Tropical Storm Kammuri continues to strengthen on its north-northwestern track through the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and NASA TRMM satellite identified a band of thunderstorms containing heavy rainfall northwest of the storm's center.

Meanwhile NASA's Aqua satellite got a look at the entire storm and saw that those bands of storms circled the entire storm.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over the northern half of Tropical Storm Kammuri on Sept. 26 at 1:44 a.m. EDT and the Precipitation Radar instrument saw a strong band of thunderstorms dropping rainfall over 1.2 inches (30.4 mm) per hour.

The TRMM satellite is managed by both NASA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Tropical Storm Kammuri on Sept. 26 at 03:11 UTC (Sept. 25 at 11:11 p.m. EDT) and saw strong bands of towering thunderstorms with cold cloud temperatures around the entire storm.

Cloud top temperatures exceeded -63F/-53C indicating they extended high into the troposphere and had the potential to generate heavy rainfall, such as what the TRMM satellite observed.

Animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery also showed that the low-level circulation center is consolidating as the bands of thunderstorms spiraled into the rounded center.

On Sept. 26 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), Tropical Storm Kammuri had maximum sustained winds near 55 knots (63 mph/102 kph). It was centered near 23.5 north latitude and 145.3 east longitude, about 252 nautical miles (290 miles/466.7 km) east-southeast of the island of Iwo To, Japan.

Kammuri is moving to the north-northwest at 10 knots (11.5 mph/18.5 kph).

Kammuri is still forecast to intensify as it moves in a north-northwesterly direction through warm sea surface temperatures, toward the island of Iwo To.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expect Kammuri to be typhoon strength as it passes east of the island of Iwo To on Sept. 27 and begin weakening on Sept. 29 while curving to the northeast staying from the big island of Japan.


The AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on Tropical Storm Kammuri on Sept. 26 at 03:11 UTC and saw strong bands of towering thunderstorms with cold cloud temperatures (purple) around the entire storm. 

Credit: Image Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen