NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: Hurricane Michael Reaches Category 3

With maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, Hurricane Michael is the first Atlantic storm of the 2012 season to reach Category 3 intensity.

The storm is shown here in high resolution infrared imagery from the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite taken on September 6, 2012 at 04:22z. 

Hurricane Michael swelled to the first category three storm of 2012 early Thursday as it churned far from land in the middle of the Atlantic, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

As of 0900 GMT the hurricane was packing winds of up to 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour as it swirled more than 1,000 miles southwest of the Azores archipelago, the forecasters said.

There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the NHC said Michael may begin gradually weakening by Friday.

Hurricane Leslie, a category one storm cycling closer to North America, continued moving northward and was projected to pass over or near Bermuda on Sunday, but no warnings or watches have been issued, the NHC said.

NASA Mars Science Laboratory: Panoramic Image

Click on the image to go to the interactive picture page.

This colour panorama shows a 360-degree view of the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover, including the highest part of Mount Sharp visible to the rover.

That part of Mount Sharp is approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) away from the rover.

The images were obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 29,000 pixels across by 7,000 pixels high, includes 130 images taken on Aug. 8 and an additional 10 images taken on Aug. 18. These images were shot before the camera was fully characterized.

Scientists enhanced the color in one version to show the Martian scene as it would appear under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. A raw version is also available.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS