On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a wide-view natural-color image of the oil slick (outlined in white) just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appears as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. Sunglint -- the mirror-like reflection of the sun off the water -- enhances the oil slick’s visibility. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder known as the AIRS instrument on the Aqua satellite showed deepening convection (rapidly rising air that forms clouds and thunderstorms) as the system moved closer to a mid-latitude trough (elongated area of low pressure). But that deepening or strengthening of convection is expected to be short lived because of the increasing winds battering the system.
The potential for System 90W to develop into a tropical cyclone has now dropped from "Fair" to "Poor" in the next 24 hours.
At 08:30 UTC (4:30 a.m. EDT) the circulation center of 91S appeared to be near 10.1 degrees South latitude and 116.4 East longitude, and had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (33 mph). 91S was moving west-southwest near 3 knots (4 mph) and it is currently about 630 nautical miles north-northwest of Port Hedland, Australia.
The image is dominated by the gray, ash-laden eruption cloud dispersed south and east by the winds, blowing from the southern Iceland coast toward Europe. The bright red areas mark the hot lava at the current vent (upper left), and the still-hot lava flows from the earlier phases of the eruption (upper center). The high-temperature material is revealed by ASTER's thermal infrared bands.
The images show the ash cloud (in blue) enveloping Iceland and moving eastward over the Shetland Islands and onward to Europe. The ash clouds appear to be at an altitude of 3,658 meters (12,000 feet).
NASA's Terra satellite flew over the volcano the following day at 11:35 UTC (7:35 a.m. EDT) on April 15, 2010, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS instrument onboard Terra captured a visible image of the ash plume from Eyjafjallajokull Volcano.
Baja California state Civil Protection Director Alfredo Escobedo said the man's home collapsed just outside of Mexicali, close to the epicentre of the 7.2-magnitude quake. Esobedo says there were reports of more people trapped in homes in Mexicali and rescue teams with dogs and digging equipment are rushing to the city from nearby Tijuana.
The quake, which struck at 2240 GMT (8.40am), was at a depth of 32.3 kilometres and was located 26 kilometres south-south-west of Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, and 64 kilometres south-west of San Luis, in the US state of Arizona, the USGS added.
A number of San Diego residents said the quake was the worst they had felt in decades.
Jess Ponting, an Australian working at San Diego State University, said he was at home when the quake struck. "The main earthquake shook our apartment block and caused a panic up and down the street,"
"I cowered under my kitchen table on the third floor for about 45 seconds as the apartment shook violently and glassware rattled and ornaments and pictures fell off the walls. "After the tremor finished, everyone spilled out on to the streets and started calling loved ones and figuring out what was going on."
When the TRMM satellite passed over Tropical Storm 23S on April 2 at 0913 UTC (5:13 a.m. EDT) it measured light to moderate rainfall. Since then, infrared satellite imagery indicated that bands of thunderstorms have consolidated around the center of 23S's center of circulation. Rainfall is likely going to intensify in the system as it strengthens over the weekend. At times rain may be falling in some areas of the storm at up to 2 inches per hour.
NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the remnants of ex-tropical storm Paul early today, April 1 and noticed its circulation and form had weakened in the last 24 hours. All weather warnings for the mainland in the Northern Territory have been cancelled.
On April 1 at 11:15 p.m. CST Darwin time (8:45 a.m. EDT) Paul's remnants were located close to the Northern Territory/Queensland border in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria coast. The low is expected to track inland overnight and continue to weaken over the southern Top End during the next few days.