Super Typhoon Vongfong in the Philippine Sea, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, on Oct. 9, 2014 at 04:25 UTC (12:25 a.m. EDT).
Super Typhoon Vongfong continued on its trek north through the Philippine Sea while slightly weakening on Oct. 10. NASA’s TRMM and Aqua satellites provided forecasters with cloud extent, rainfall rates and distribution and more.
Vongfong was a super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 145 knots (167 mph) when the TRMM satellite flew over on October 8, 2014 at 2328 UTC 7:28 p.m. EDT). TRMM’s Microwave Imager showed that Vongfong was producing rainfall over a large area and heavy rainfall in the eye wall (the powerful thunderstorms around the open eye) and in multiple bands of thunderstorms wrapping into the center. On Oct. 8, Vongfong was the most powerful typhoon since super typhoon Haiyan that killed over 6,000 people after hitting the Philippines in November 2013.
Image Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team