• Credit:

  Image and caption by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC).

Typhoon Neoguri, the first typhoon of 2008 in the western Pacific Ocean, was moving towards southern China on April 16, 2008. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite captured the data used to make this image of the typhoon as the clock turned to 4:26 p.m. in China (8:26 UTC). At the time, Neoguri was a Category 1 storm with winds estimated at 140 kilometers per hour (86 miles per hour or 75 knots). The image shows rainfall rates within the storm as seen by TRMM’s Precipitation Radar (inner swath) and the TRMM Microwave Imager (outer swath). The rainrate data overlays observations of clouds from TRMM’s Infrared and Visible Scanner. The most intense rains, shown in red, circle the center of the storm in concentric bands. Neoguri formed into a tropical depression on April 14 over the Sulu Sea in the southwestern Philippine Islands, where it was named Ambo.

TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA.

Images & Animations

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• Database Updated: May 7, 2013