NASA’s satellite captures Indian areas under heavy rainfall by Laila
By ANIFriday, May 21, 2010
WASHINGTON - NASA has developed a Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite that can create satellite images of areas ravaged by heavy rainfall in India, caused by the tropical cyclone Laila.
TRMM, apart from measuring rainfall intensity from space, can also give idea about the height of a thunderstorm that is generating the rainfall within the tropical cyclone.
A “hot tower” is a rain cloud that reaches approximately nine miles - at least to the top of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere.
They are so called because they rise to such altitude due to the large amount of latent heat. Water vapor releases this latent heat as it condenses into liquid.
On May 20, TRMM flew over Laila after it made landfall in India and captured an image of its rainfall rates.
The heaviest rainfall appeared just southeast of the center of circulation, and over land (along the coast). That area was generating rainfall of about 2 inches per hour.
Rain rates are created from different instruments aboard TRMM - Precipitation Radar and the Microwave Imager. These rates are then overlaid on infrared data from Visible Infrared Scanner to create an entire image.
At 9:00 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), Laila had maximum sustained winds near 50 knots (57 mph). The center of tropical storm was close to the town of Bapatla - one of the historical towns and mandals of Guntur District (Andhra Pradesh) located 40 miles south of Guntur City on the East Coast of India. It is also about 220 nautical miles west-southwest of Visakhapatnam, near 16.0 North and 80.1 East.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that as Laila moves north-northwestward, “it will encounter the rugged terrain of northeastern Andhra Pradesh and weaken.
However, a formidable remnant low is expected to reemerge over the northern Bay of Bengal after 72 hours and accelerate east-northeastward toward eventual landfall over or near south-eastern Bangladesh.”
Residents along coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in other areas in Laila’s path can expect widespread heavy rainfall and gusty winds.
Seas will also be rough, and fishermen were advised by the India Meteorological Department to stay out of the ocean. (ANI)
