A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet

• Credit:

  NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.

Ophelia was strengthening into a hurricane when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on September 29, 2011. MODIS acquired this image at 10:40 a.m. Atlantic Standard Time (AST). Twenty minutes later, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Ophelia had winds of 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour, and was headed north-northwest.

At 8:00 a.m. AST on September 30, the NHC reported that Hurricane Ophelia had winds of 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour, and was continuing to travel toward the north-northwest. The NHC forecast that Opehlia would turn toward the north and increase its forward speed later that day. The NHC’s five-day projection showed the storm potentially passing over eastern Canada around October 3.

1. References

2. National Hurricane Center. (2011, September 30). Hurricane Ophelia Advisory Archive. Accessed September 30, 2011.

Images & Animations

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• Database Updated: May 7, 2013